When Magic Was Discovered

Chapter Five

Graham began to panic. He immediately thought he and Acetto had been discovered. Almost as if Acetto could tell what Graham was thinking, the older Spellbinder put his hand on Graham's shoulder.

"No need to worry. It's coming from over there," Acetto stated. He pointed his free hand toward the deeper parts of the city.

"Can we help them? The Dispersion will arrest them if they get a hold of any Spellbinders..."

"Worse, probably. We'll see what we can do. We can't go attracting attention to ourselves. Our main objective is to get to the lower levels."

Graham frowned. He might have been new to the whole Spellbinder thing, but he already felt an obligation to help any of the Spellbinders in need. He knew Acetto had described that there were different kinds of Spellbinders, some more fanatic than others, and that these ones could easily be the bad kind of Spellbinder.

The two headed back towards the busy main street of Trade City. The crowds had several reactions. Many carried on with their business, but the rest were either running away from the commotion or towards it to see what was going on. Graham could hear chanting to rid the streets of black magic. His stomach began to tie in knots.

Dispersion soldiers were running through the crowds, quickly passing Acetto and Graham without a notice. A loud voice came from a box attached to one soldier's belt. "Please clear the way. Dispersion on the move."

Graham looked to Acetto. The Spellbinder's face was grim. It made Graham feel even worse. There were several Dispersion coming from every direction as they all honed in on the commotion. 

The two managed to reach the crowd of people that had circled around a shop. Outside there looked to be the shop owner holding a boy by his wrist. It was one of the three kids his age that he saw on the caravan. Dispersion was cautiously surrounding the shop and keeping the crowd back.

"I didn't do anything!" the boy yelled. His accent sounded deeper than most of the people Graham had heard before.

"Soldiers and officers, this boy used his black magic in my shop!" the shop owner spat out.

Graham eyed the crowd. He noticed that one of the other kids was near the edge of the crowd. Tears were streaming down her face. Her brown eyes glistened.

"We have to do something," Graham whispered to Acetto. He could tell Acetto was deep in thought. Perhaps the older Spellbinder did have something up his sleeve. Then a smirk spread across Acetto's face.

"Listen here, kid. I'll tell you what. I'll be sure no one gets hurt, but I want you to test your abilities to rescue that boy."

Graham stared motionless at Acetto. "You're going to test me right now? Really?"

Acetto nodded without breaking his smile. Graham turned his attention back to the dozen Dispersion soldiers, each ready to take out their weapons.

"We're going to have to take you in for question kid. We can't have no black magic users running rampant in Trade City. It's the law," one soldier said as he slowly approached the boy.

"I am not a magic user!" the boy shouted again. "This man is crazy!"

"Even still, we have to be careful with allegations like this. Now will you come quietly with us?" the soldier asked.

The boy continued to struggle. The shop owner's grip on his wrist was keeping him stationary. Graham knew his window was closing. He looked to his hand. Everyone's eyes were on the boy and the soldiers. No one would notice if he used his powers among them.

"Another black magic user!" someone shouted from behind Graham. Panicked, Graham shot magic into the air. It caught the focus of everyone, including the soldiers and shop owner. Acetto slipped into the crowd. Graham quickly lost sight of his mentor.

"Get the black magic user!" the soldier closest to the boy shouted. The Dispersion began moving into the crowd that was now chaos. Those eager to see magic now could see they might be in danger.

Graham tried looking around for Acetto. Instead he found himself face to face with the crying girl. "Thank you for the distraction," she said quickly, "Now let's get out of here."

"What about the other-." Graham started to say when he heard the shop owner let out a painful howl. He looked over to see that the boy must have kicked him really hard and escaped his grasp.

"We have to meet up with the others, hurry!"

Graham wanted to find Acetto before leaving, but he only had a few more seconds before the Dispersion were in reaching distance. "Lead the way."

The girl began to maneuver through the crowd. Graham followed her as quickly as he could. Once he was on the move, the Dispersion soldiers began to shout at him.

"Stop! By order of the law, you must stop!"

The shouting soon became covered by screams from the crowd as one Dispersion soldier began to fire him weapon. Bullets were shot in rapid fire. Graham began to duck as he followed the girl. He could hear the shots, but didn't want to look back and see if they were just warning shots fired into the air, or actually fired at him.

Graham had a hard time keeping cover between him and the soldiers, while also trying to keep up with the girl. She moved through the shops, houses, and other ruddy buildings with ease. He was pretty sure she was used to running through cities. Graham, however, was not. He had speed from riding his bike and the labor on the farm, but he wasn't used to so many obstacles. Trade City was littered in pieces of metal or wood that the citizens used to makes walls, fences, or even just scrap piles.

Graham turned corner after corner, only catching a glimpse of where the girl was going next. He was losing track of her. She was far too fast for him to keep up with. Graham turned another corner to find a soldier waiting for him at the end of the path.

"There you are, magic scum," the soldier sneered.

"Not all Spellbinders are bad!" Graham shouted back.

"You're all the same. Using magic to either look down on everyone, or to cause chaos."

"I used it to save that boy you guys were going to arrest."

The soldier chuckled. "Arrest, yeah that's a good one."

Graham frowned. Acetto had a similar reaction. They could easily put on a facade for everyday citizens, or perhaps everyone knew already. Graham couldn't be sure if everyone was that heartless to willingly give over a Spellbinder child to die rather than be arrested.

"Time to end your existence, magical scum," the soldier said as he raised his firearm toward Graham. 

Graham's legs wouldn't move. He knew he would have to use his magic. He summoned his powers and formed the barrier in front of him. The soldier lowered his weapon. He then began to laugh.

"You Spellbinders are all the same. Have you not realized our technology has developed to counter magic?" The soldier began to fire before Graham could react further. Bullets propelled toward him. He watched as the bullets went right through the barrier. His magic didn't stop them.