More than Magic: Semester Aboard (7 page)

He nodded. "Actually, I'm going to go wait
for Thomas. See you in..." He trailed off and looked for a clock.
"Well, I'll see you there."

Dani left and I resisted the urge to follow
and demand he start explaining. I spent the rest hour with all the
questions that had been building up just running through my head.
The one that kept coming back was ‘were they actually going to
explain everything?’ Dani had obviously hurried off before I could
ask him anything.

When the hour was up I headed down to 3120
and knocked. Thomas opened the door and I followed him in. TS and
Dani were there too. A part of me that had been expecting Jon to be
smuggled onto the ship to explain things was disappointed to see he
wasn't with them. Dani and TS were sitting on the same bed and
Thomas sat down with them. I nervously sat down on the other bed
across from them. I felt sort of like I was about to be
interrogated or something. There were butterflies in my stomach
from a mix of curiosity and concern. They were obviously going to
tell me now, I could tell from their expressions. But, they all
looked very serious. I had an odd feeling in my gut that something
huge was about to happen.

"I'd like to wait for Char and Mariana,"
Thomas said. "But, I think you'll go nuts if we don't explain
now."

Chapter 5

Thomas paused and looked at me for a moment,
then glanced at Dani and TS. What was up with all this melodrama?
Thankfully, he spoke before my patience ran out.

"We work for MES," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"MES," Thomas repeated. "It stands for
Magical Enforcement and Security."

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.
Magical? They weren't still stalling, were they? As much as I would
have loved it if something magical really were going on, I couldn't
believe it. Magic wasn't real.

Thomas continued. "Jon, by the way, is the
head of the Northeast branch. MES, well as the name implies,
enforces magical security. Sort of. Our agency is responsible for
all sorts of things. Keeping the existence of magics a secret being
the biggest. So, it makes and enforces a lot of laws regarding
that."

"Back up," I said, "the existence of
magics
?"

"Magical beings," Thomas said.

"Like elves and fairies?" This couldn't
possibly be happening. He had to be making things up.

"There's no such thing as elves," Thomas said
seriously.

"Fairies are such a pain," TS groaned. "I
swear, half of my fieldwork is for those bloody things."

"And they're always so happy, even when
they're attacking you," Dani said. "It's weird."

"It's well creepy," TS agreed.

"Fairies and magical beings," I said. "Do you
expect me to believe this?" I didn't add that I wanted to.

Thomas shot a glare at Dani and TS, then went
on. "There are some magics out there, fairies being a good example,
who compromise our secrecy. Sometimes accidentally, sometimes for
fun. And, from time to time, violently. We have to deal with a lot
of crime that non-magics just aren't equipped to deal with. Bit of
an FBI and CIA feeling sometimes."

"Makes it fun," Dani said. "It's a good
job."

"A lot of paperwork though," TS said. "You
wouldn't believe how long it takes just to write up a report about,
I dunno, some dumb, young wizard trying to use a love potion on a
non-magic."

I stared at them. They were either all
playing along really well or...no. I hadn't stumbled onto a bunch
of magical beings or whatever they were. It was too good and too
unbelievable to be true. But, why had they kept putting it off? If
there really was a boring non-magical explanation for all of this
then why hadn't they told me right away? And if, by some insane
miracle, I really had stumbled into some kind of fantasy movie,
there was still no reason for them to have waited. As far as I
could tell, Jon coming had been pointless.

"And you waited this long to tell me…why?" I
asked. "You could have explained it without waiting for Jon to get
here, or even had him do it."

"Actually, we were going to alter your
memory," Thomas said softly.

"What?" I blurted.

"Jon mixed up a potion that would wipe your
memory and make you believe anything we told you. We had to wait
for him because none of us can do that. We could have just found
someone in Panama to do it, but Jon likes to be hands-on."

They were still sticking to the magic angle.
"I suppose Jon is a wizard or something?" I asked, expecting Thomas
to say no.

"Yes."

They all still looked perfectly serious. Now,
I was confused. I was starting to believe them. I
wanted
to
believe them. But, a part of me was afraid that they were suddenly
going to burst out laughing because they fooled me.

"And let me guess," I said, trying to see
which way this was leading, "you’re
all
witches and wizards.
And you," I continued, looking at Dani, "cast some
survive-falling-off-a-ship spell that night."

He shook his head and laughed. "No, no. I’m
not a wizard. I'm a water elemental. A nereid to be specific."

"A nereid," I repeated. Something clicked and
I felt like an idiot. They were messing with me. "A Greek nereid?
Like from Greek mythology?" I demanded.

Dani rolled his eyes. "No. The mythical
nereids are named after us, not the other way around."

"You're Greek though."

"I can't help where I was born."

He said it with a perfectly straight face and
I was torn again. "And Mariana’s a nereid too?" I asked
carefully.

"Nah, she’s a mermaid. We’re totally
different. That‘s like saying a shark is the same as a guppy cause
they both live in the water."

"Would you be the shark or the guppy?" TS
asked with a grin. I noticed once again that his tongue poked out
of the corner of his mouth when he laughed.

Dani hummed under his breath and made a rude
gesture at him.

"So," I said. I looked back at Thomas, "You
were going to erase my memory, but you didn’t?"

This wasn't possible, was it? There was no
such thing as magic or witches or water elementals.

"You can see what my eyes really look like,"
Dani said.

I froze. Dani's eyes
were
strange. If
eyes that reacted with emotions weren't proof that magic was real,
I wasn't sure what was. Were they...were they really telling the
truth?

"So, we had Fend talk to you," Thomas said,
"and you could hear him."

"Fend?" I asked. I had heard that name a
couple of times now.

"The raven," Thomas said. "He's Jon's
familiar."

"Ok..." This had gone on too long, hadn't it?
If it were a joke they would have said something by now. "And, you
didn't erase my memory, why?"

"My eyes are just plain blue to non-magics.
If you can see them and you can hear Fend then you..." Dani
paused.

"You're a magic," TS said. "It wouldn't be
possible otherwise."

I was stunned. For a moment I wasn't sure
what to say.
I
was magic?

"You’re a witch," Thomas said. "If you were
anything else, you’d know. Non-magical humans sometimes give birth
to magical ones. It’s pretty rare, but it happens. A witch can’t do
any real damage without a way to channel her power. As a result
magical humans like you who don’t know it just…well, they stay that
way unless they get lucky like you."

He fell silent and they all watched me, as if
waiting for me to realize that he was telling the truth. I wanted
to, but it all just seemed too perfect. Too incredible. I stared
down at my hands, trying to figure out what to say. I was still
afraid that if I jumped right in eagerly they'd all reveal it was
one big joke. Suddenly, there was a commotion.

"Damn it, TS! Get off the bed first!" Dani
yelled.

"Ew, Teth, you got fur in my mouth," Thomas
spat.

I looked up and froze. Thomas and Dani were
still sitting on the bed and half on them - half off the bed, was a
wolf. At least it looked like one. I had seen wolves in the zoo
before, but this was nothing like them. It was huge, at least twice
the size of a normal wolf. It was a solid, shaggy dark brown. Its
paws were the size of dinner plates. Its snout was stubbier than a
regular wolf, but it had long fangs hanging out of the top and
another set on the bottom. Really long fangs. Its tongue lolled out
of the corner of its mouth behind one set of fangs, and I could
swear it was grinning.

"Sorry," said a voice that sounded like TS,
only deeper and scratchier. "I figured this was the fastest way to
clear things up."

As I stared in shock, the wolf began to
shrink. The fur melted away into clothing and skin and the paws
split into hands. Then TS was there. His legs were on the bed still
across Dani and Thomas’ laps, and his hands were on the floor
holding him up. He swung his legs around, and stood and stretched.
He flashed me a grin, then settled back on the bed.

"Thanks for the warning," Dani muttered. He
moved a little further away from TS.

"So, you already know what Danio and Mariana
are.
I
am a werewolf," TS announced.

This couldn’t be happening. They weren't
joking. It was real. TS was a werewolf, Dani was a water elemental,
Mariana was a mermaid, and I...I was a witch.

"You alright?" Thomas asked softly. "I know
it’s a lot to accept."

"It can’t be real…"

"Well, that was the best proof I had," TS
laughed.

"You saw me fall off the ship," Dani said.
"Look at my eyes." He leaned forward and I could see different
blues in them gently moving. Like ebbing and flowing water. "Have
you ever seen a human with eyes like this?"

"No..." I said weakly. "You're really...not
human?"

"I already told you, I’m a water elemental,"
Dani laughed. "A lot of magics like me look almost human. There's
nothing odd about me to a non-magic, they see black hair and blue
eyes. But, obviously, that's not right."

His hair almost looked black, but had a
definite blue tint and his eyes were still merrily swirling. He
really wasn't human.

"But…" My head was reeling. I tried to make
sense of it all and kept going over everything I’d seen in movies
about wizards and werewolves and mermaids. "It’s not a full moon
tonight," was the only thing I thought of saying.

TS laughed and for the first time his tongue
poking out reminded me of a dog instead of just looking odd.
"That’s movie stuff. I can turn into a wolf any time between sunset
and sunrise."

"But not during the day?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I’m just a regular human
during the day. I look human right now, but I'm not."

I nodded. This was still too much to take in.
"So...why are you here?"

"We're taking a cruise," Thomas laughed. "We
uh..."

"Pulled some strings," TS added.

"Since MES pays for college credit we worked
a free cruise out of them," Thomas said.

They laughed and then fell silent. I sat
quietly for a moment and they all seemed content to let me think.
Part of me still felt like they were about to say it was all a big
joke, but amazingly, I knew it wasn’t. All the things I had seen,
the conversations I had overheard. It all made sense. I couldn't
believe this was happening.

"By the way, Jon is looking into getting you
a wand," Thomas said to me.

My jaw dropped. "A
wand
? Like a magic
wand?"

"Exactly," he laughed. "You are a witch after
all. I'll teach you a few spells, get you started." There was
something slightly off about his smile. He glanced at TS, who
nudged Thomas' knee with his. Thomas flashed him a different,
almost sad smile and then turned back to me. "If you stop by
tomorrow night, I should have a wand for you."

"Ok," I said.

There was a knock on the door and TS went to
open it. Charlie followed him back into the room and stared at me
in obvious confusion.

"Jen, what a surprise." He looked at Dani and
frowned. I realized that he didn't know that I was, apparently, a
witch. He must have expected my memory to be erased by now. There
wasn't enough room on the bed with Dani, Thomas, and TS, but it
seemed that Charlie wanted to sit across from me too. He ended up
sitting mostly on Dani's lap and looked at me curiously.

"Get off! You smell horrible," Dani cried,
leaning away from him. "What have you been doing?"

"Sauna. Why is uh..." He glanced at me.

"Charlie, here," Dani said to me, "is a fire
elemental."

"Danio!" Charlie gasped.

"It's ok," Thomas snickered. "She's a
witch."

"What?" Charlie looked at me in shock. I
could see orange and red sparks flying in his eyes. A fire
elemental. That meant that the streaks in his hair probably weren't
dyed in, just like Dani's was really blue.

"It's news to me too," I told him.

"Toasty," Charlie laughed. "She get missed or
something?"

"Seems that way," Thomas answered. "Lucky we
found her, she's almost too old."

"Well, then," Charlie said, before I could
ask what that meant, "I am indeed a fire elemental. An imp, in
fact." He laughed. "Probably the only kind you'd enjoy running in
to." He snapped his fingers and a flame appeared on his palm. He
closed his fist and the flame went out.

"Wow," I breathed.

I heard a muffled ringing and Thomas pulled a
phone out of his pocket. "Yeah?...Jon, I just ate. You were there,
remember?...I'm already back on the ship...I'm not going
to...but..."

"You should go," Dani said.

TS nodded in agreement.

Thomas glared at both of them. "No, I'm
coming, I'm outnumbered...Yes, I'll ask her, bye." He snapped his
phone shut. "Fine," he grumbled to them. He sighed and then looked
at me. "I'm sorry, Jennifer. I'm afraid I've got to go. Jon has a
question for you though."