Note: This story takes place shortly after the events of the novel Alex Norton, Paranormal Technical Support, and contains spoilers relating to the events of that book, so heads up.
***
Ray knew what was going to be said. The third remedial auric test didn’t go any different from the first or second ones and it was his last chance.
“I’m not a wizard.”
“You aren’t going to be a practicing wizard, Ray. Right, yes, you already know.” Magus Orlander frowned from behind his desk, his bushy brown eyebrows drooping. “Sometimes the talent simply isn’t there. There’s no shame in it.”
Ray groaned and slumped in his seat. “Tell that to my parents. They already compare me to my perfect sister. Yet another reason I’m a disappointment.”
Orlander cleared his throat. “Yes, well, Sarah is very gifted in our arts, but that doesn’t mean you should give up. You know, most of our scholars aren’t active practitioners. Some of our best experts don’t perform workings on their own.”
The Magus pointedly didn’t acknowledge Ray’s parents. They were powerful magi in their own right, and influential in the Circle. Ray’s mother was already one of the youngest members to be appointed to the council. Orlander was right, only forty percent of Circle members successfully pass the evaluations and become recognized as actively practicing wizards. The rest remained “librarians,” academics and researchers who formed the backbone of the magical community.
But most librarians could still perform workings with cooperation and preparation. Even when they lacked much direct talent in the fields, the fundamentals were present enough that they could do something with all the theory. No matter how much Ray tried, he couldn’t so much as light a candle without a match.
Technically, Ray was still an apprentice at High Rock, and had been ever since his parents enrolled him into the academy at the castle. He had the same formal rank as Sarah, he could graduate with the same formal accreditation as his sister relying only on his academic knowledge, and after graduating he would be formally recognized as a Magus just like her. But he wouldn’t ever become anything more than a librarian, while his sister could break through the dusty ceiling.
And being a wizard in name only wouldn’t satisfy their parents. Ray could see the disappointment on their faces already. He sat up, “Magus Orlander, I’ve been spinning my wheels here for months. Magic isn’t for me.” He laughed, “I mean, be real. Have you ever met a person with such a total absence of talent?”
The wizard counselor looked away. “One or two in my time. That doesn’t mean-“
Ray pointed at one of the certificates on the office wall. “That says 1927, doesn’t it?”
“Ahem. Well, yes. But-“
“Guess that means I’m a one-in-a-century kind of guy!” Ray stood up. “Thanks for trying, Magus. But living in the stacks under my sister’s shadow isn’t for me. I’ll break the news to my mom and dad, then see what other paths I can take.”
Orlander nodded curtly and stood up, offering Ray his hand. “I wish you luck. And regardless of talent, you’ll always have a place in the Circle. Remember, the mind is a more powerful tool than any fetish, focus, or material. And your mind in particular is one of the sharpest I’ve seen, whether you can perform workings or not.”
They shook hands and Ray left the counselor’s office, waiting until the door closed behind him before he started grumbling.
“Sharpest tool. Tell that to my mom. Thinks I’m a caveman next to my sister…”
The academic administration offices at Castle High Rock were clustered in a small, dimly lit corridor up a winding staircase from the classroom and laboratory floors. Magical lights flowed from sconces along the walls, producing flamelike flickers that warmed the stones. Bare, dark incandescent bulbs hung silently in a line down the center of the ceiling, thin wires carrying no power.
“We’re proud of your grades, sweetie. But Sarah conjured a lesser elemental! Sarah transmuted marble to jade! Sarah made a squirrel-hamster chimera! Magus Myerscough was so impressed!”
The bottom of the staircase opened out onto the end of the third classroom floor, a much wider hallway lined with great oak double doors. Windows set into the walls showed rooms of wide tables and benches. Students in jackets and robes listened to lectures and took notes, absorbing magical history, theory and mechanics. Morning sunlight peeked into half of the classrooms, while glass orbs filled with more magelight kept the lighting consistent through the corridor and in the opposite rooms. Twin strings of unlit light bulbs ran along the ceiling.
“You’ll get the hang of it! This time you’ll activate the invocation! No, this time you will! This time you will! Sarah can show you how to do it!”
Three stories down, the stacked stairway connecting the floors of the academic wing led to the entry hall of High Rock. It was a large vault occupied by its own great staircase, a massive stone hydra of stops that led up to various landings leading to the different wings of the castle. The landing for the academic wing was the third-lowest. The steps to the archives, laboratories, and council chambers wound higher in the hall. The botanical/zoological courtyard and maintenance wings had their own landings below. A separate staircase led downward into the storage chambers, which were of course referred to by all at the castle as the dungeon.
“Ignore the new technologies out there! They can’t work with magic anyway! It’s fragile, mysterious, useless compared to what we can do!” Stomp. Grumble. “Maybe what you can do, Sarah!”
“Why won’t it print? I just put in a new ink cartridge!” Stomp, but not Ray’s feet. Grumble, but not Ray’s voice. “I just followed what the box said, everything clicked into place! It’s nowhere nearly as complex as inscribing an invocation diagram to channel scrying energy into a copper mirror!” Stomp. “But it’s too complex to remember to wear the grounding strap I gave you and told you to use! So of course you fried the damn thing!”
Thump. Ray found himself on the polished marble floor of the entry hall, dazed. In front of him was another man, less dazed but even more grumpy. A cardboard box skidded a few feet away from him, a tangle of wires and tools spilling across the floor.
“Watch where you’re going!” Ray and the man shouted at each other.
The man bent over his discarded box and grumbled. “Damn wizards. Pretentious, head-up-their-ass little-“
Ray rose to his feet, furious. “You walked into me, you jackass!” He gritted his teeth, standing over the man as he reassembled the contents of his box.
The man sprung up, shaking a blue metal box at Ray. It was large and flat, parhaps a bit larger than one of the reference tomes in the library, and covered in braids of wire arranged in strange patterns. “You walked into me! This is very delicate equipment!”
Ray looked down at the box, then up at the man with a glare. “Then you should have been more careful and not slammed into me!”
They sneered at each other, teeth gritted for a long moment. Then the man closed his eyes and sighed. “I have the unreasonable demands of bigger wizards to deal with right now. Neither of us was paying attention. Sorry.” He offered Ray his hand. “You okay?’
Grumbling, Ray shook his hand. “Yeah, I’m fine. None of this stuff is broken, is it?”
The man shook the metal box experimentally. Satisfied when it didn’t rattle, he snorted, “Nah, it’s probably fine. This type of hardware’s pretty sturdy. Usually just one or two boards and the ports running to them.” He regarded Ray curiously. “I wasn’t paying attention because the vaunted leadership of the Circle have collectively cast a Major Annoyance spell on me and inflicted me with the Unreasonable Demands status effect, compelling me to set up a wire run through the faculty offices where the existing wiring and duct work can be literally described as antique. What had you distracted?”
Ray glowered. “I just came from there. Another stunning failure to show aptitude in the thaumaturgic arts, complete with a lecture on how fine it is to be a librarian and the subtext of how much I’m disappointing my parents. You talk weird, by the way.”
“I talk great, thank you very much.” The man frowned at Ray. “And I’ve been there, kid. Don’t have a magical bone in my body. It’s not a big deal. Turns out cable monkey can pay even better if you know how to work it.”
Hackles starting to lower, Ray eyed the man. He certainly didn’t look like a wizard or a scholar. Everyone at High Rock at least put some formal effort into their appearance, as Ray’s gray robes and black tie uncomfortably reminded him. This “cable monkey” wasn’t in robes, a jacket, or even a button-down shirt. He wore a green t-shirt with a colorful, smiling blue blob on the front, and khaki pants with extra pockets on the thighs. “Still talking weird. Who are you, anyway?”
The man regarded Ray slowly, clucking his tongue at the standard brown-trimmed black uniform suit the academy wing wore. “I’m Alex Norton.”
A pause. “Okay? Hi, Mr. Norton.”
Alex frowned. “Pioneer of thaumaturgical insulation and isolation? Co-inventor of magebraid?” He waved at the walls. “The very reason this idiot castle can get wired for networking and you can use a phone without it exploding?”
Ray glowered. “I don’t have a phone.” Sarah had one. Of course they let the genius daughter of the family wield such a powerful and mysterious device.
“Wow, this place really is cloistered.” Alex puffed out his cheeks. “I thought all kids were born with SIM cards at this point.”
“I’m not a kid!” Ray’s hackles started rising again.
Norton just stared at him. “You’re in a school uniform.” He pointed at Ray’s crisp brown jacket, under which was an eggshell dress shirt and a red tie loosened almost to the point of falling off his neck.
“Yeah, well I’m qui- graduating. Not going to wear this anymore.”
Alex laughed. “What are you, fourteen?”
“I’m seventeen!” Ray sneered.
“You’re seventeen, you’re a young wizard, you don’t have a phone, and you haven’t even heard of me. It’s nice to know the Circle is raising a new generation that,” Alex raised his voice, shouting to the entire hall more than Ray, “Won’t remember to wear a grounding strap!”
That was enough for Ray. He stomped forward and yelled in Alex’s face. “I’m not a wizard!”
Wizard… wizard… wizard. The words echoed in the silent hall. A few students and researchers were watching the argument. Most had politely shuffled off, the older members of the Circle knowing to avoid Norton at times like this.
Ray looked away. “I’m not a wizard. I can’t perform any workings. I can’t invoke, conjure, or scry. I’m doomed to be the Circle’s most useless librarian, sitting in a dusty basement in a distant branch until I die.”
“I know plenty of librarians I trust more than most of the greybeards here.” Alex sighed. “But that’s not what you want to hear. Why not find something else?”
Ray shook his head, staring at the floor. “This is what I know.” He gestured at the hall. “I’ve studied magic all my life. I know out there everything’s connected, electric, online.” He chuckled bitterly. “I’m seventeen and I don’t even have a phone.”
Alex crossed his arms. “Well, that’s easy to fix. And I can-” He paused and rolled his eyes, muttering to himself. “I’m just picking up strays now, aren’t I? Okay, fine. What’s your name, kid?”
“It’s Ray, not kid. Ray Granofel.”
“You don’t seem busy, Ray Granofel. You knocked me over and made me drop my gear. Now you’re going to help me make sure it works before I install it in the academic wing. Then you’ll help me install it in the academic wing.” Alex tucked a few cables around in the box, making sure it wouldn’t spill so easily again. “And maybe you’ll learn something useful in the process. And for the record, I’m not a wizard, either.”
***
Ray kept his head down, avoiding eye contact with the scattered students walking through the main corridor of the wing. He begrudgingly followed Norton back up the stairs from the hall, then up the second set to the laboratories.
Why was he doing this? Norton was a weird jerk and Ray didn’t have any reason to stick around after the discussion with Magus Orlander. He could have just left him, his box of junk, and all of High Rock behind.
But there was something about that weird jerk and that box of junk. They were interesting. Strange. And seemed about as sick of wizards as Ray was
The two of them were given a wide berth as they carried this strange equipment. Norton seemed to be radiating an aura of frustration that actively repelled the other wizards (including, thankfully, Magus Orlander). In fact, the only interaction they had was Magus Myerscough approaching the strange technician.
“Grounding. Strap.” Norton spoke those two words through gritted teeth and Myerscough froze stock-still. Ray had seen well-honed stasis spells demonstrated by combat wizards that were less sudden and effective. After a long, uncomfortable moment the alchemical zoology professor swallowed and stepped back, clearing his throat.
“Ah, I, ah, see you’re busy. Didn’t mean to interrupt, Magus Norton. I should be going!” He nodded vigorously and quickly passed them both in a brisk strut-run, bringing to mind a pigeon avoiding a car.
Norton led Ray to the end of the lab floor and into a tiny, empty room. It was cramped, not much bigger than a closet, its limited floor space already mostly taken up by a small table, a circular stool, and a strange metal rack. They squeezed awkwardly in. and Ray moved to put his share of the junk on the table, but Norton stopped him.
“We need the space. Put the box on the stool.” Ray obliged then watched as Norton rummaged through the pile of equipment. He removed the blue box from before and set it on the table, then placed a much wider, flatter gray slab next to it. Both objects had rows of square black holes running across one side. “So, phoneless teenager Ray Granofel, I assume you don’t know anything about networking?”
Ray sneered. “No, obviously.”
“Computers at all?”
“I’ve seen a few in the labs, but we don’t have them in classes.”
“Figures. How about electricity? Light bulbs and such?”
Ray groaned. “Yes, I know about electricity. I grew up with electric lighting, and this place has had it for longer than I’ve been here.”
The strange technician wasn’t impressed. “Great, so your technical knowledge is only half a century behind and not an entire one. Better than a lot of the wizards here, at least.” He clapped his hands. “So, the last question, most relevant. Telephones. You don’t have a cell phone, but what about land lines? Do you know how wired phone lines work?”
Ray’s indignation gave way to confusion. “Phones use wires?” The phones Sarah and some of his classmates used were just little rectangles that didn’t have any wires. He vaguely remembered Sarah plugging a cable into her phone at night, but never when she used it.
Norton stared at Ray, then closed his eyes and muttered to himself. “It’s not his fault. He didn’t grow up with it. Analog phone lines are before his time. You’re not old.” He exhaled deeply and offered the thinnest smile. “So pretty much we’re at square one. No problem. You at least know how power cables work. It isn’t too much more complicated than that.” That last sentence came out at a much higher pitch than the others, and through a bit lip.
“Hey, Mister, if you don’t want me here I can just leave.” Ray glowered at Alex. “Why am I even following you?”
Norton glanced at his erstwhile charge, “Because you’re here and you’re not going to be a wizard. That means your choices are to settle in as a passive academic, walk out right now, or walk out later with some uniquely improved prospects. It’s your choice. I was going to do this job myself anyway.” He thrust a screwdriver into Ray’s hand, handle-first. “Got something better to do?”
Ray really didn’t. Even this was just delaying the inevitable argument with his parents about his future. And he had no idea what this Norton guy was doing, but he definitely had a presence.
Curiosity, procrastination, education, whatever. He grabbed the screwdriver. “So what does all of this stuff do?”
Norton grinned and shook his screwdriver across the now-scattered contents of the small room. “This will unify the thoughts of every person in this castle, and connect them to the collective knowledge of the world beyond its grounds!” He paused. “Or it’ll let the folks here connect phones and computers to each other, endowing this grand fortress of Western magic with the information infrastructure of a small office building in 1982.”
The engineer dropped a few screws on the table and tapped one of the flat boxes. “I assume you know how to use a screwdriver. Mount that box on that metal rack. Think you can figure out how?”
Ray gritted his teeth. His upbringing might not have included high technology, but he wasn’t an idiot. He grabbed the box and the screws and looked at the rack.
The rails were spaced apart exactly wide enough to accommodate the box, so Ray slid the box onto one of the pairs of rails. Metal lips on the back of the rack stopped the box from sliding out the other side, and left the front neatly flush against the front of the rack. It fit perfectly.
With the box seemingly in its proper place, Ray examined the rack more closely. The rails all had long slots running their length, and behind the slots he could see holes drilled into the side panels of the box. Ray jiggled the screws in his palm, then started to screw them into the rails, securing the box.
“Well done, first steps and all that.” Alex tapped the box with his own screwdriver. “What you just mounted on that rack is called a network switch. Each of those holes on the front connects to a computer or some other device with cables, and the switch lets them all talk to each other through those cables. We’re going to mount a few more, then move on to the next step.”
Ray took another switch off of the stack on the table. There were five in total, all covered in complex patterns of braided wires, and he could count 24 holes on the front of each. He set about installing the second box. “This will connect to 120 computers?”
Alex was wrist-deep in a pile of cables, carefully separating and winding them into loose coils. “Rooms, actually. The really tedious part isn’t putting these in, but actually running them around High Rock. But yes, you’re getting it.” He started separating the cables into two piles, one blue and one black.
After the second switch was secure, Ray looked down at the piles. The black wires were thick, and ended in chunky nubs, half of which he recognized as standard power plugs. The blue wires were thinner, and ended in smaller square plugs with long tabs on them.
Ray reached over Alex, who by now had settled cross-legged on the floor as he built his empire of coiled cables, and grabbed the third switch. He set about securing it in the rack. “You said you’re not a wizard, right? Talentless, like me?”
Norton grunted. “Wouldn’t call myself talentless, kid. I doubt you are, either. Neither of us can call upon the myriad strange energies of blah blah blah to rewrite the natural order of bleh bleh bleh. Big whoop. Just because you can’t carry a tune doesn’t mean you can’t paint a work of art.”
The academy at High Rock had art classes and clubs. It had music classes and clubs. It had plenty of opportunities to understand and experience almost every part of the world, except high technology, without involving magic. But at the end of the day the students studied to be wizards. They divined, transmuted, channeled, energized, empowered, and changed reality itself with powers Ray couldn’t ever touch, despite his constant efforts to do so. Norton’s words rang hollow. “So why did Magus Myerscough call you Magus Norton?
The alleged non-wizard sighed deeply. “In the eyes of the Circle, I’m technically a wizard. Which means I’m technical, so they call me a wizard.” He shook his head. “It’s complicated, and more than a little political. Believe me when I say I can’t even light a candle without a match.”
Alex crouched low and reached around the metal rack, pulling out a bundle of cables. They were bound by hard plastic loops except for the last two feet or so, keeping them together in a single tight mega-cable that disappeared into the wall. Each wire ended in a square plug identical to the ends of the blue coils Alex had laid on the floor. A small paper tag with a number on it sat a few inches down from the end of each wire. “Let’s just say I’m not on their roster by choice. Okay, put down the screwdriver and look alive. You understand screws, so here’s your second test. Stand right here.”
He handed the bundle fo Ray and stepped aside. It looked like a bouquet of blue-stemmed flowers with small, square blooms and tiny white leaves. After guiding Ray in front of the rack, he leaned against the table and crossed his arms. “Top one. And go.”
With a sneer Ray plucked at the different wires. The condescension made him consider stomping out right there, but a mix of pride, curiosity, and spite kept him there.
Second test? Square pegs in square holes. It was either as obvious as it seemed, or this wizard-not-wizard would teach him something unexpected. Ray lined one of the plugs against the top-left hole in the top box on the rack and inserted it. It slid into place with a strangely satisfying click. Alex smirked.
Ray glared at him, then read the tag on the inserted cable. It had the number 6 on it. The ports on the switch were all numbered, and the wire was connected to the 1 hole. He tugged at it, but the plug was lodged in tight. With a frown, he looked closer at the stuck cable, noticing a tiny tab that jutted out above it, in the hole. Ray pinched it experimentally and pulled the plug back. It slide smoothly out. This earned a slow nod from Alex.
Matching the plug to the port labeled 6, Ray slid it in and it clicked into place. Alex let out a thoughtful “Hm.”
Ray proceeded to connect the rest of the cables, matching the numbers on the tags to the numbers on the box. Click, click, click, click, click. When he was finished, two ports remained empty.
Alex grinned, patting Ray on the back. “Very good! You pass, with extra points or merits or whatever. You have figured out the mystery of cables and devices, and even realized you needed to match the ports. I wasn’t even expecting that.”
He pulled away from the condescending tech. “Stop treating me like an idiot! Yes, I understand that things plug into other things! I told you, I grew up with electricity! I’m not stupid!”
Alex stared at him, the smile fading from his face. Then, after a few moments, he began laughing hysterically. “Ha! No, young Ray, you are not stupid.” He shook his head, offering his hand. “And I’ll stop treating you like it. You do indeed understand that things plug into other things. And this is where I tell you two of the greatest secrets about my line of work.”
Ray narrowed his eyes at the offered hand. “Secrets?”
“One, the fact that things plug into other things is, at heart, one of the very core concepts of all information technology. At least forty percent or so.” Alex nodded down at his hand.
Ray took it uncertainly. “And two?”
Alex shook firmly, twice. “That most of the ancient and powerful wizards in this idiot shack can’t grasp that concept no matter how many times I’ve tried to explain it.” He grinned and released Ray’s hand and pulled two new objects from the box on the table.
One object was a small black box with six sticks extending from the top. Each stick was mounted on a swivel hinge, letting it point in different directions. One side of the box featured five holes that matched the ports on the switches, four black and one yellow. A sixth, smaller, round hole sat next to them, along with a large black button. The body of the box was covered in the same braided wires as the boxes he mounted in the rack, seemingly unconnected to anything.
Alex pointed at the box and set a short wire next to it. “That is a wireless access point, or more technically a router. Put it on the top switch and plug it in. The yellow port.”
Ray nodded and placed the box on the topmost slab in the rack. He connected one end of the wire to the yellow port on the router, and the other to one of the two remaining free ports on the switch.
The other device Alex removed was a yellow handheld tool with three more square ports on the end. A large seam ran down the length of it. “For reference, that type of wire is known as an Ethernet cable. It’s standard for wired networking. Feels good when it clicks in, doesn’t it?”
It was strangely satisfying. Ray said nothing.
Alex pulled the tool in two separate directions and it split into two pieces at the seam. “That first secret I told you has two important corollaries that go with it, and I’m confident you’ve sussed them out already. First, plugs need to match holes by shape. An Ethernet cable goes into an Ethernet port, a USB cable goes into a USB port. Second, labels let you know what cable should go into what port when they’re all the same type. I wasn’t kidding about being impressed that you caught on.”
He set the tools down and presented Ray with another black box, this one rectangular. A wire ran directly out of one side and terminated in a circular plug, while the other held a large port with three metal tines inside it. Alex added a thick black cable to the package. “Now, plug in the router. Not a test, just part of the work.”
One end of the heavy cable ended in a plug for an electrical outlet. The other was a chunky block with three holes in it that matched the tines in the large port on the box. Ray plugged it in, then immediately took the small plug on the end of the thinner wire coming out of the box and inserted it into the circular port on the router. Finally, he followed the cable bundle to the wall and crept along the floor until he found the beige faces of two power outlets.
“Ah! Don’t plug it in yet!’ Alex grabbed a large black bar from the box and dropped it on the floor in front of Ray. “Plug that in, then that into that. Then turn it all on.”
Nonspecific shorthand aside, Ray understood. A power cable ran out of the end of the bar, which itself held two rows of power outlets on its face. He inserted that cable into the wall, then plugged the router’s cable into one of the outlets.
Nothing seemed to happen. Ray noticed a switch next to a button and a small nub on one side of the bar. He pressed the switch and the nub lit up red. Should it be red?
Alex acknowledged it before he could ask. “Red means power. That’s perfect. Now turn on the router.”
Ray stood up and pressed the button next to the circular power cable port on the router. Translucent lines running over the black box lit up red, the light dancing sinisterly across the knots and spirals of the wires running around it.
He stepped back and watched the router start to rotate through different colors, glowing merrily. The blue slabs below it didn’t stir.
A thought occurred to Ray, and he looked around the back of the rack. Each blue switch had large ports that matched the one for the power cable on the small box connected to the router.
While Alex hummed to himself, his attention focused on the screen of one of the two tools in his hands, Ray picked up a few more of the heavy black cables from the floor. He dutifully plugged each one into a switch, then into the power strip on the floor
Lights started dancing around the ports of the switches, whites and reds glowing like stars above or below each hole. The show was almost as satisfying as the click of those Ethernet cables.
“Okay, the tester is set, now you just have to-” Alex trailed off as he turned towards Ray and the now-powered rack. “Oh wow, you already did it. I didn’t even have to tell you. The bar is low at High Rock, but I’m not bullshitting you when I say I’m moderately impressed. You learn fast, kid.”
It didn’t feel particularly flattering, but Ray accepted the compliment. “So what’s next?”
Norton plugged the smaller of the two tools into the remaining port on the top switch, then unplugged the cable connecting the router. “I start line testing, and you start asking more specific questions.”
“Like… what’s line testing?”
The engineer shrugged. “Eh, still vague but a good question. We’re taking as read that my equipment here works. Lights are on, power’s going through, no problem there. The lines running through that wall and all around this castle. Lines that a contractor put in at my direction, following the power and telephone lines. On paper, they’re just bundles of plain wires leading to specific points. No electronics to get futzed up. In reality, even the most magically bone-dry office building is going to have a few snags, so we’re going to have to test each one.”
He pulled a plastic bag filled with dull black rings. “I hope you have more questions for me, because there is at least one big one you haven’t asked yet.” With a muffled metallic jingle of the bag, Norton walked out of the room and down the corridor, the larger tool in his free hand.
Ray glanced at the flashing rack before following him. “A big one? Um, well, why are you doing this?”
“Because they’re paying me.” Alex walked into the nearest classroom, just next to the network room. “Drill down, get more specific!”
It was filled with two rows of long wooden tables, each with three stools on one side facing a center lecturn. A typical layout for High Rock’s classrooms, where students could learn the more academic vagaries of magic, and some of the broader non-magical subjects the Circle bothered to teach. Ray had just been sitting in one of those stools listening to Magus Amelioras drone on about Western restorative workings and their very tenuous and inaccurate parallels to Eastern chakra and chi points earlier in the week. He could make out the faded traces of the Magus’ notes, not quite erased from the chalkboard.
There were no more classes for the day, and Ray and Norton were the only ones in the room. Norton walked to the wall opposite from the door, scanning it at shin-height.
Why Norton was doing this, but more specific? It seemed obvious, even to Ray’s formatively technology-starved frame of reference. The growth of modern electronics, networks, phones, the Internet was a ubiquitous noise beyond the walls of High Rock, too loud for even the centuries-old elders of the Circle to ignore. That was why Ray grew up with electrical lighting, flickering and inconsistent though it was. It was why his sister got to have a smartphone, giving the pride of the family even more novel power than her own talents.
Ray wasn’t envious of Sarah for the phone. He was so engrossed in trying to eke some kind of progress out of his own studies he hadn’t considered what he’d even do with his own if he got one. It was just another mysterious artifact on the pile of things about Sarah he quietly stewed over, its fancy wire patterns only to the sense of it being an esoteric treasure.
Wait. Ray realized that those same patterns ran over the switches and the router Alex had him set up, and the tool Alex plugged into the switch with no explanation. And the other tool, in Alex’s hand. Gleaming braids of three-colored wire on every piece of equipment Norton brought in, and on Sarah’s phone, and the few phones and computers he saw others at High Rock use.
And almost never on the phones carried by everyone outside of the community. Walking in the park outside of the castle’s exclusion field, shopping for groceries and clothes, the rare times his parents would take everyone out for a meal at a restaurant, there was no sign of the braided wire that outright festooned the few electronics at home and in the castle.
“Cables connect things, the shapes of plugs and holes match, you need to label them to keep track of them, right?” Ray asked as he watched Alex plug the tool into an Ethernet port in the wall. The plate covering it looked new, shiny but with a thin line of dust where the wall must had been cut to install it.
Alex pressed a button on the tool and its screen lit up, showing rows of numbers. “Yes indeedy. And that isn’t your question.” The grin could be heard in his voice.
“The wires on these things aren’t the same thing, are they? They aren’t connected to anything but themselves. They just… cover everything. Why?”
The strange engineer barked out a laugh and leapt to his feet, unplugging the tool. “We have signal! That’s one down.” He turned to Ray. “The line works, too. But that is definitely the right question, the precise answer to which confounds the supposedly greatest minds of the supernatural world. The less precise answer is simple: It’s insulation. Come on, we only have a few dozen more rooms to check. I’ll tell you more on the way!”
***
The two wound their way through empty classrooms, checking Ethernet ports while they talked.
“Let’s start with the basics, Ray. What is magic, fundamentally?” Alex spoke more to the wall than to his erstwhile student.
Ray rolled his eyes and recited the driest definition of the broadest subject taught at High Rock’s academy. “Magic is the intentional modification of natural laws towards a desired goal, accomplished through the conscious direction of environmental and extra-environmental energies.” It was fundamental.
Alex wiggled his fingers in the air. “You say a weird word or draw a weird shape and a candle gets lit.”
“If it was that easy, I wouldn’t be here with you.” Ray said through gritted teeth.
The tool in Alex’s hand beeped once, green symbols appearing on the screen. “There we go, next room. And of course it isn’t that easy, because it requires some form of ambiguous ‘talent’ that some people just don’t have. Like carrying a tune, or painting a picture, or remembering to clip on a-” He raised his voice as they walked out into the hall, then trailed off when he saw it was empty. “For non-supernatural skills you can still play a note or draw a line, but ultimately some people just don’t have the chops to actually turn that effort into anything. But the first part of the definition is the important one.”
“Intentional modification of natural laws towards a desired goal. What does that have to do with electronics?” Ray followed the rambling technician into the next classroom and watched as he crouched by the far wall.
The end of the short cable plugged into Alex’s tool hovered a few inches away from the port in the wall. He paused and looked up at Ray. “What is technology?”
It seemed like another obvious question. Ray recited what he remembered from his Post-Armistice World History course. “Science is the study of natural laws-“
He was interrupted by a shrill beep. Alex took his thumb off of a button on his tool and it stopped. “Wrong! Well technically right but I asked what technology is, not science. Technology is the application of knowledge of natural laws. And that means?”
Gears turned in Ray’s head. The concepts were rubbing up against each other and forming a conclusion that just wasn’t taking shape yet.
Alex stood up and showed him the tool. “Come on, kid. If you don’t figure it out I won’t let you use this very technical and complicated piece of equipment that I can assure you would not work at all if it wasn’t properly insulated from the magical energies flowing through this place. Very technical. Very complicated.”
Complicated technology. It suddenly clicked. “Technology relies on knowledge of natural laws, and when those laws are modified it ceases to work.”
The tool was shoved into his hand. “Correct! And the more laws a piece of technology relies upon the easier it is for the effects of magic to screw it up.
“Tungsten lights might just flicker occasionally around the supernatural because the mechanisms in use are relatively simple and relatively speaking there’s a lot of wiggle room in terms of current and voltage. Hard to mess up unless you’re throwing around a ton of reality-warping energy.”
Alex tapped the tool in Ray’s hand and continued. “But take something more complicated and filled with millions of tiny circuits stacked on top of each other that all have to do different things in very specific orders, and now the slightest nudge that adds a microscopic coefficient to Kirchhoff’s laws or Gauss’s law or Faraday’s law will cause a knock-on effect that will completely fry most of those circuits as soon as you turn it on.”
Ray stared blankly at him. “Millions of circuits?”
“Oh, thank Eris he didn’t ask about Kirchoff.” Alex muttered under his breath, then cleared his throat. “Right! Millions of circuits. Well, technically speaking it’s billions of transistors all packed into a silicon square smaller than a penny. Look at a lamp as a single circuit, a few wires running power from a source to a bulb. Just a simple loop. There are exponentially, to the seventh or eighth power, more loops like that arranged much more complexly and with much more precise thresholds of power they can take inside a modern computer. Or phone. Or watch.” His brow furrowed. “Or light bulb, now that I think about it. If we’re talking a smart light.”
The scale was absolutely baffling, but Ray could see what the engineer was trying to convey. “And magic warps the rules that keep all of those billions of circuits working the way they’re supposed to.”
Alex nodded “And fries them in the process.”
Ray stared down at the network tester in Alex’s hand. “And it isn’t something wizards easily understand.”
“You have no idea. I’ve seen world-class magi and masters of the most complex thaumaturgical formulae fail to understand they need to press a power button, stare blankly at a login screen, or-” Alex glanced at the hallway and rolled his eyes, speaking at a reasonable volume, “Forget to wear a grounding strap.”
It wasn’t magic. It didn’t need magic. Magic users were outright bad at it. Ray vibrated. “Teach me. Teach me everything.”
Alex’s eyebrows raised and he eyed Ray for what felt like minutes. Finally, he walked past him and out the classroom.
“Tell me you’re still interested after we check every jack.”
***
It took four hours for Alex and Ray to work their way through the academic wing, half of which involved actually confirming the Ethernet jacks in every classroom were connected to the switches on the rack in the cable room. The other half involved the two running back and forth between the rack and the pair of classrooms wish jacks that didn’t show a connection.
Of the latter two hours, Alex spent just ten minutes inspecting and wiggling Ethernet plugs before one of the classrooms was up and running properly. Over the rest of the time, Ray learned some creative and esoteric epithets from his ostensible new teacher.
All through that, they talked about magic and technology. About the frustrations of walking the halls of High Rock without an ounce of magical power. About the evolution of the computer from vacuum tube behemoths to virtually microscopic and entirely omnipresent devices. About the eroding technological walls between the Circle and the outside world, which Alex took no small amount credit for with both pride and shame.
Finally, with a screwdriver, a soldering iron, and several warnings for Ray to “not do it this way, I know what I’m doing,” Alex finally saw the bright green confirmation of a network signal on the screen of his tester.
He clapped his hands and jumped up. “Hah! We did it!” Leaning towards Ray, he whispered, “Do not tell anyone about that cable splice.”
Even if most of what he did was stand there holding cables and equipment while Alex rooted around the classrooms, Ray felt proud. More than that, he felt exhilarated. He had new knowledge, knowledge that almost no one else at High Rock had. He understood mechanisms and processes that he could actually engage with despite his lack of magical talent. He saw a path ahead that didn’t end with him sitting in dusty stacks, forever in the shadow of his sister.
He nodded excitedly. “We did it! That’s the whole thing, right? The wing is connected?”
Alex grinned, “The whole thing. There are still two other wings that need to be wired for network, and after that I’ll be deploying mesh nodes for Wi-Fi, but for now that’s the full job! You did pretty good, kid.”
Ray braced himself for the next step. “Teach me. Everything about this.”
With a sigh, Alex walked to a desk and set his tools on it. He looked back at Ray, his expression unreadable. “You just spent four hours listening to tech lectures in between doing shuttle runs to a server closet. You’re standing in the middle of the biggest bastion of human magic for half the continent, and you’re asking to be a cable jockey.” He reached into his pocket. “Weren’t you bored?”
The young not-wizard stood firm, with fire in his eyes. “It’s something I can do.”
Alex shook his head and chuckled, muttering to himself. “I really am just picking up strays.” He pulled his hand from his pocket. “Hold out your hand, kid.”
Ray eagerly reached out. A wad of folded bills dropped into his palm, with a business card on top. He blinked and looked at the card. It said “Alex Norton, Paranormal Technical Support,” along with a physical address in Manhattan, an email address. and a phone number.
He frowned at the money. “What’s this for?”
Norton turned away, tucking his hands behind his head. “You do work for me, I pay you. That should be about twenty an hour’s worth, but if it gets official we’ll talk about rates. We open at ten in the morning on weekdays. You’re under 18, so I won’t have you come in for more than 20 hours a week. I also want your parents’ permission. If that’s going to be a problem, we can talk about it. Let’s call this an internship, and I can talk to Oleander about the work counting as credit, along with reduced courseload.”
Invoking Oleander’s name snapped Ray out of his excited daze. “Courseload? Credit? But I’m-” Alex cut him off.
“You’re 17, right? You have, what, a year left?”
Ray frowned, “A full semester after this term. But I told you I’m-” Interrupted again.
“You put in most of the time already and there’s no reason not to waste it. Besides, it’s better to have a tool you don’t use than find that you need one down the line. A diploma’s just another tool, along with any education that comes with it.” Alex hmphed. “And I’d prefer not to hire a high school dropout unless they have a very, very good reason.”
Even with the demand to continue classes, Ray’s excitement was barely blunted. “I can do that. And I’ll come in tomorrow morning.”
Alex waved his hand and led Ray back towards the server closet. “No need to rush. Get things sorted, call ahead, and we’ll figure out a schedule.” He stopped for a moment and rolled his eyes. “That said, I’m going back to the shop after this. If you want I can show it to you, give you a closer look at what you’re getting into before you commit.”
“Yes! Please!” Ray bounced on his feet.
“Good. Now help me shlep all the gear to my car.”
***
Getting handed money and then riding in a stranger’s car wasn’t a particularly wise decision, Ray mused. He was even more conflicted when Norton responded to his hesitation by grinning at him and opened the glove compartment to reveal a small revolver. “I do anything untoward, you can get to it quicker than I can,” the technician assured Ray.
It was a mad gesture, but through the afternoon Alex had seemed genuine. Besides, Ray really wanted to know more, so he climbed into the boxy, dark blue hatchback. His worries were replaced by fascination when Alex plugged in his smartphone and the screen on the dashboard lit up.
“Feel free to poke at it. It’s shielded just like my phone.” Not that it needed to be, with Ray’s complete lack of magical ability. He tapped curiously at the screen, reading the label of each icon element before opening the navigation app.
Alex chuckled, glancing at the screen before turning onto Todt Hill Road. “First time with a touch screen?”
Ray shot him a glare. “I told you my sister has a phone. She let me play with it a little. This is really cool, though. It’s built into the car?”
They lurched in their seats as Alex gritted his teeth, weaving around an aggressively swerving Escalade. He laughed as they shot ahead of the black vehicle, reaching towards the back seat and shooting up a finger, actively ignoring that the SUV he cut off was at least three times the mass of his little dork-wagon.
“I drive in the real boroughs, asshole! Stay in Jersey Junior!” He grinned and glanced at Ray again, hands gripping the steering wheel tight. “No offense if you live here. This system’s after-market, but pretty much, yeah. What car do your parents drive? Early 70’s make, right? Sticks out either like a collector’s classic or a truly ugly land-boat?”
Ugh. The family car. Ray swore his parents treasured it almost as much as they did his sister. “1968 Mercedes 300.”
Alex whistled low. “Both, then. Fancy. Well, most wizards drive vintage cars like that because they predate microprocessor control systems. Starting in the late 70’s, car engines have been controlled by little computers. Then transmission, steering, windows, pretty much every part of a car built since 1998 or so has been controlled by its own chip, each more powerful than my first three computers combined.” He snorted. “You don’t want to know how much a pain in the ass it is retrofitting a modern car to not die as soon as anyone with the slightest magical power gets in. Or how much I charge for it. “
Ray nodded absently, eyes half on the screen. “Uh-huh. That makes sense.” He swiped over the map, exploring New York City with his finger. The streets lit up in bright colors to show traffic patterns, puncuated by green flags and gold stars scattered around the boroughs. Ray tapped a few. Names popped up, some familiar, all followed by short comments and occasionally a string of expletives.
ISAAC MYERSCOUGH
CUTE HAMSTERDOG (EDWARD?)
DUCT TAPE THE STRAP TO HIS ARM
RICHARD ALBRIGHT
OLD SMARTASS
GETS SUCK-UP DISCOUNT
LUCIUS WAGNER
LITERAL DEVIL
GETS REASONABLE CLIENT DISCOUNT
JOHAN
DO NOT FUCK WITH
GOOD CREDIT
OTTO
FAE, ???
DON’T MEET WITHOUT THE SPECIAL PENNIES
Norton tapped the corner of the screen, returning it to the home menu. “Right, I have clients on there. Don’t worry about them. Here, look at the music app. Put something good on.”
***
The rest of the drive was an educational experience for both of them. Ray learned about electronica, game soundtracks, and Japanese idol music. Alex learned that progressive rock was “stuff my parents listen to” even when said parents were elite wizards cloistered from mundane society. This did not make him feel old at all.
The esteemed headquarters of Alex Norton Paranormal Technical Support was ground-floor storefront on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village, between Astor Place and Alphabet City. From the outside ooked old, cluttered, and highly dubious, destined to be ignored by almost everyone who walked by just like every tiny non-chain computer store. The front windows were crowded with colorful boxes of computer graphics cards, all extremely out of date. The door bore the business’s name in small, carefully painted letters, and a dangling sign hanging from a suction cup below it declared the store to be open.
A few signs were mounted prominently on the glass pane to the right of the door, each about the size of a sheet of paper.
One was a colorful flag depicting a rainbow of horizontal stripes and a chevron of black, brown, white, cyan, and magenta on the left side.
One said in large black letters, “WE DON’T SELL NEW ELECTRONICS. NOTHING POST-2080, IPHONE 10, GALAXY S7, OR SEVENTH GEN CORE.”
One said, in small black letters, “All customers are welcome to engage in commerce as dictated and defined by the proprietor of this establishment and/or directly acknowledged representatives thereof. Unless otherwise specifically and thoroughly excepted by the proprietor and/or directly acknowledged representatives, transactions are to be considered accepted only in writing through agreement of both parties involved regarding both explicit and implicit terms of said agreement, as mutually understood within the formal, informal, technical, and colloquial definitions of the English language. This establishment is recognized as neutral ground by all parties of the Avalon Accords. No physical or metaphysical violence is permitted and will be met with judgement and/or reprisal by the New World Circle, the Unified Circle of Europe and the British Isles, and/or The Court of the Lord and Lady. The proprietor and all directly acknowledged representatives are legally entitled by the aforementioned parties to perform any measures they judge necessary to ensure the safety of the establishment’s property, staff, customers, guests, or any individuals or groups granted sanctuary upon neutral ground. Faebane, silver, symbols of faith, and other materials unspecified are present upon these grounds for the purposes of protection. Nothing asked, nothing offered, nothing given, nothing owed, save thrice upon the tip of the pen.”
Ray could only read a few lines of the long sign before Alex stepped past him and grabbed the door handle. “Don’t worry about that. Legalese for some of our clients. They tend to… haggle if terms aren’t spelled out. Anyway, here we are!” He pulled the door open and bowed theatrically. “After you.”
The maybe-intern stepped past the threshold into his new maybe-job, followed by his new maybe-boss. Alex paused as he walked inside, turning an eye and ear toward the top of the doorway. Three bells dangled from the frame, one copper, one dull gray iron, one shining silver. They swayed slightly from the gentle breeze the open doorway let in, but remained silent. Alex nodded thoughtfully.
The inside of the shop was as cluttered as the crowded windows facing the outside indicated. It was a narrow, deep storefront with shelves running along either wall, filled with boxes and bins of all sorts of electronics and obscured by even more boxes and bins piled up in front of them. A glass counter stood a few yards back, showing two busy tiers of carefully arranged phones, tablets, computers, action figures, and robot models.
A space to the left of the counter was marked by a small sign that said “Employees only,” and behind it was a workshop at least twice the size as the front of the store, and twice as cluttered. Metal shelves bore large gray plastic bins, each loaded with a variety of devices in clear, zip-up plastic bags. A few work benches stood between the shelves, loaded with soldering irons, rotary tools, drill presses, a pair of humming 3D printers, and sets of tiny drawers holding all manner of bits, screws and memory cards. . A selection of pliers, nippers, screwdrivers, hammers, and a wrecking bar dangled from pegboards above the benches, joined by large coils of wire, solder and, filament.
The sight took Ray’s breath away. There was so much here that he learn about, work with using his own mind, eyes, and hands. He could feel it from the quiet buzzing of the printers, the gentle hiss of a soldering iron, the dry and almost musty smell that was so different from the dry mustiness of High Rock’s libraries. This was something he could do, even without any magical talent.
Something he could do that even Sarah couldn’t.
It made his mind race, enough that at first he didn’t even notice the young woman bent over one of the benches, soldering pen in hand. Or the tall woman standing behind her.
“That node leaves a gap at least three centimeters wide,” the standing woman observed. She was skinny, with long blonde hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and a black dress festooned with rivets and lace. She was also completely flat, and glowing gently. Ray stared silently, realizing she was an image of light cast across a human-sized white board being used like the screen of a movie theater. Two black orbs were mounted to the top of the board, lenses fixed on the sitting woman’s soldering iron. “You’re make a funnel for destabilizing energy to shoot right through the L2 bus.”
The sitting woman was shorter, with a broader frame and shoulder-length red hair. She didn’t bother to look up at her companion, fixated on the anodized aluminum rectangle under her hands. “It’s not a funnel, it’s the eye of a storm circulating around nodes three through twelve and radiating passively out of the two exterior nodes I’m adding. It means using at least three feet less wire and once I run numbers on the bus you’ll see it’ll actually be more stable than before.”
Ray had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Alex clearly did, and he stepped past the counter with a loud cough. “We have a guest! And Andy, that better be a beater and not one of the laptops you were supposed to mod today.”
The redheaded woman dropped the soldering pen into its wire holder and looked up. “Hey, boss. I finished those three books hours ago. They’re in the bin. And hi, new person.” She stood up, rolling her shoulders with a yawn.
A buzzing sound could be heard from the floor as the taller woman turned toward Alex and Ray. Or rather, the robot vacuum that held the screen she was projected upon turned. She flickered, frowning slightly. “Hello. Alex, who’s this?”
Norton gestured for Ray to join him behind the counter. “This is Ray Granofel, a dedicated student at High Rock and possibly our new intern. Ray, this is Andream Morgan and Ada Hopper. Andy is my-“
“Partner.” She grinned and offered Ray a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Employee.” Norton corrected. “And Ada’s a researcher in the Circle’s Pacific Northwest branch, being beamed to us from not-sunny Seattle. She’s one of the few people I let handle certain proprietary knowledge.” Ada’s glowing eyes narrowed at that statement. “So I’m going to have to ask you not to mention her being here or what she seems to be doing. Actually, I’ll have to draw up a non-disclosure agreement on certain things here if you do want to work here.”
Ada turned slightly to regard Ray quietly, the cameras on the top of her screen whining as they focused. “Right, I’m video calling from Shadow Lake on this gadget. Ray… Granofel, you said? From the Circle?” Her screen slowly rotated back to Norton. “Alex?”
Alex stared back at Ada, smiling tightly. “The sign said open, so nothing really sensitive is being done here, of course.” Ray could feel the tension, but before he could offer to leave Alex put his hand on his shoulder and shook it, grinning brightly, “And don’t let his family fool you, he’s as talented as me. And proved to be very helpful with the cable run in the academic wing, so I definitely see some potential.”
The atmosphere had chilled, despite Alex’s efforts. Andy looked between Ada and Ray, the enthusiasm on her face fading. “Maybe we should talk about this before bringing anyone else onto the, uh, team.” She smiled at Ray, “Just so everyone’s on the same page.”
“Yes, Ms. Morgan, let’s talk about this before making any big changes to who works here.” Alex said through gritted teeth. His eyes locked onto Ada’s projection. “That’s a good policy to have, isn’t it?”
Norton’s words had some weight Ray could see, even if he didn’t understand them. The redhead and the glowing ghost both looked away, the former coughing uncomfortably.
Every socially resonant part of Ray cried out for him to politely dismiss himself from the workshop and go home. But the call of the sea of technology before him wouldn’t let him step off the pier. Not yet.
The buzzing of the printer, the wisps rising from the soldering pen, the just-barely-audible high frequency whine of power supplies. The world that Ray could actually do something in.
He lifted his head and stepped forward. “Look, I don’t know any of you, and you don’t know me. I’m not my parents or my sister. I can’t do what they can. I’m never going to be a wizard, but I was still raised in the Circle and educated at High Rock, so it’s not like I can start a life outside of it. All I see in my future is becoming a faceless librarian.” His eyes started to water. “No experiments, no research, no magic, just watching over books and nothing else. This is something else. Give me a chance.”
The shop was silent for a long time. Then Alex rubbed the corner of his own eye and smirked at Ray. “Guess you’ve made your choice on the job, huh?” He looked at the two women, waiting for a response from them.
Andy frowned, watching Ray’s face. She looked to Alex. “Grew up in the Circle and can’t do magic, huh?”
He smiled sadly. “Like I said, he’s as talented as me. And I see a spark in him.”
Ada’s screen pivoted slowly back and forth between the three. “If you think it’s a good idea, Alex. And if he can be discreet. Industrial secrets and all.” She rotated away, towards the back of the shop.
“Intellectual property NDA’s as good as a geas with us mere mortals, and it’s not like the Circle hasn’t tried harder than this.” Alex waved a hand. “And if it bites us in the ass, I’ll burn down High Rock myself.”
“Mmm. Just don’t give away the shop, brother.” Ada turned around again, her glowing profile now wearing a red flannel overshirt over a black t-shirt with a power button on the chest, and blue jeans. “If you’re passionate and honest about it, Ray Granofel, maybe you can do great things here.”
The whine of the devices around the workshop sounded like music and the faint scent of solder and plastic smelled sweet to Ray, far better than the silence of a library punctuated by the fluttering of pages and the reek of dust kicked up from old paper. He was almost at a loss for words as the approval melted away the tension and apprehension from conversation. “Awesome. Thank you, ma’am.”
Andy nodded thoughtfully as Norton clapped his hands together. “Great! Wonderful! Probably won’t end up being a huge mistake!” He bobbed his head excitedly, striding to the large wooden desk at the far back of the workshop, sitting in the tall, battered leather chair behind it and tapping away at a keyboard. “I have standard paperwork for employees now, but actually setting up an internship for academic credit, with compensation, will probably involve just a bit more mishugas. I’ll ask Nathaniel–he’s our lawyer–to look into it, whatever waivers and permissions are needed since you’re a minor, that sort of thing.”
A printer in the corner came to life, paper loudly shuttling through it. Alex waited as a small stack of forms slide into the output tray. He removed them and snapped them into a clipboard, then took a blue pen from a mug on his desk and slid it above the board’s clip. Finally, he handed it to Ray.
“Just fill out the contact information on the first page, add any details you want on the other ones but none of it’s binding,” Alex directed. “It’s just so we know how to spell your name, where you live, that sort of thing. We’ll need permission from at least one of your parents, like I said. And Nathaniel will probably come up with a lot more forms you’ll have to fill out and they’ll have to sign. For now, just talk to them, and let me know if they push back. I can be diplomatic.”
Andy and the hologram both snorted loudly. Norton shot them a glare. “Eat me, I can be incredibly diplomatic.” He looked to Ray again, “I know you’re from the Circle’s community and how insular it is, but they still usually keep up with government paperwork. I assume you have a social security number?”
Oh. Oh, no. It was awkward enough at times at home and school, but the things he heard about how the non-magic commnunity felt about it… “Yes, um, but it’ll be under a different name from Ray.” A chill developed in his spine.
Alex nodded, “No problem. Formality, need to have it in the paperwork to get things running smoothly. Does Ray come from your middle name? What’s your legal name?”
Ray swallowed. “Rachel.”
Alex nodded again. “Cool. Should we keep calling you Ray? He/him, she/her, them/they? What do you prefer?”
The chill became a vague shock. Ray wasn’t sure what he was expecting. “Um, he/him. It’s not a problem?”
Ada’s hologram flickered. A badge of white, cyan, and magenta stripes appeared on her left breast. She rotated slightly towards Alex and Ray.
Norton made a face. “Feh, why would it? Flag in the window should have been a hint, too. Sorry if I was lax in introductions, though.” He pointed at himself. “He/him. ‘Boss’ works, too.” He thrust a thumb at Andy, who snorted again. “She/her.” He aimed the thumb at Ada. “She/her. Or beep/boop.”
The glowing woman lifted her middle finger toward Alex. “Ass.”
He grinned. “Bitch. But yeah, not a problem here.” Norton frowned, looking at the clipboard. “Is it a problem with your family, or anyone in the Circle? I assumed things from your uniform and how you presented yourself, but if it’s the sort of thing you want to keep on the down-low…”
Ray shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m him at High Rock, and my parents have accepted it.” Even if his mother still sometimes slipped when she was angry and sharply called him Rachel. “I heard it’s more, um, frowned upon outside the community.”
“Not that even wizards are perfect with it.” Ada quipped.
Norton sighed, “I can’t speak to it personally. I’m a cis guy.” He glanced at Ada, who nodded toward him. “But yeah, it seems like it’s really rough outside of the Weird.”
Andy’s eyes bulged out and she stared directly at Norton. He blinked and threw up his hands. “Not like that! Weird isn’t about identity! It’s what we call the supernatural world. The Weird, capital W. Ada’s native to it, but Andy and I both grew up in staid scientific mainstream reality and were introduced to all of the wild things beyond it much later. You’re not weird. The Weird is just, you know, the line-“
Ray mercifully interrupted his rambling. “I get it. Good to know. But is it going to be an issue?”
“Not for anyone here, or any of our clients.” Alex took out his phone and started scrolling through his contacts. “We deal almost exclusively with the Weird, anyway. Even if High Rock can potentially be awkward about it, most magic people seem almost completely languid. The Fair Folk are more often than not they/them/whatever they feel like being at the moment, and the idea of any inherent metamorph having a problem with altering your physical presentation is completely ridiculous. Probably why wizards are at least slightly progressive about it, too. Hypocritical to use magic and alchemy to shapeshift or improve anything with your body and then dump on trans people, isn’t it?”
Ada’s speaker made a throat-clearing sound. “They still aren’t perfect, though.”
Norton looked solemnly at her. “I’d never say they are. And vampires are definitely still sometimes wonky about it. Johan apparently took decades just to accept his son is gay. But yeah, to get to the bottom of the page, welcome to the team, Mr. Ray Granofel. May you find this internship fruitful.”
Ray smiled brightly. “Happy to be here.”
Who needs to be a wizard?, Ray thought to himself. He found a world where he could thrive and not languish, where his lack of magic talent wasn’t seen as a flaw.
That sounded pretty damn magical to him.