By

Brian W. Antoine

Oct 22, 1993

Chapter One

"Atkinson?"

"Here!"

"Carstars?"

"Yo!"

"Hastings?"

I called out about half a dozen more names and listened for the replies. I had to have been crazy to let Penny and the University talk me into this.

"Vernon?"

"Here sir. Sir?"

I finished checking the list to make sure I'd caught everyone.

"Sir?"

"Huh?" I looked up to see a young guy looking back at me. The rest of the group was trying to keep from laughing. "I'm sorry. I don't get called that very often. I didn't think you were talking to me. What's the question?"

"Is that thing for real?"

He was pointing at Smaug, who was resting on the top of the podium and taking a nap. "Yeah, he's real. Hey lazy butt, wake up and take a bow." I tickled him behind his head ridge and he looked up to see who it was.

"Cool.....", "Maybe this is for real?", "What the hell is it?"

"Ok everyone, quiet down. Is there anyone here who's name I didn't call?" A couple of hands went up as I had been expecting. "Ok, you and you." I pointed at the two people with their hands up. "Give me one good reason why you didn't believe the course announcement about needing my permission to take this class." They looked at each other like I was crazy.

"Nobody believes those things."

"Yeah, I know. I didn't when I went to school here either. This one is for real though. Both of you, hold out your hands like you were trying to hold water in them. They both just stared at me. "You want to take this class or not?" The rest of the class was snickering to themselves. They had all taken and passed the same test, or they wouldn't have been here.

"Yeah, so what's with the hand bit?"

"Call it a test. You pass, you stay. You fail, I turn you into something your own mother wouldn't recognize. Now get the hands out, or head for the door, your choice."

One of them just muttered "This is too weird," and headed for the door. The other held her hands out as requested.

I concentrated, and small witchlight sprang into existence in my hand. "Ok, catch" and I tossed it to her. She made a good attempt, but it passed right through her hands like they weren't there. "Sorry, you will have to leave."

"What the hell kind of test was that?"

"My kind" and I pointed at the door. She wasn't real happy, but she left without causing any problems. With the doors closed and sealed, I made a quick scan for bugs and such and started the class.

"Ok, now that that's out of the way. We can get down to business." While I was talking, the piece of chalk behind me had been moving by itself and writing on the blackboard. "I suspect most of you know who I am, but for those of you who have spent the last three years out of contact with the world, my name is Brian. When I last checked, I was also called quite a few other things by the various religions, but I don't think much more of them than they do of me." Only about half the class heard what I said. The rest were all watching the chalk behind me and whispering amongst themselves.

"This class is titled 'Intro to Magic 100' according to the sign-up sheet I was given." I took the sheet in my hands and ripped it in half. "So much for what the University thinks about my class. What this class is really about is you people and what you want to do with whatever talent you may have." One of the people who had been paying attention, raised their hand. "Yes?"

"What was the test for?"

I scratched Smaug on his head and went around to sit on the front of the lab bench that ran along the front of the class. "It was to find out whether you had any talent for magic. You all took, and passed, some variant of the test I gave the young women who left. It was designed to find out whether you could manipulate the most basic form of magic I know of."

"Will I be able to do things like that?"

"I really don't know. I'll try to teach all of you the most basic form of magic that I can. Those who have the mental quirk needed to handle the manipulation of magic, will get an 'A'. The rest will get a 'C' just because you made it into the class." Another hand went up. "Yes?"

"Isn't this all some kind of trick?"

"How would you tell if it was?"

"Didn't The Great Randi try to prove you were a hoax?"

"Yes he did. Those of you who followed that little run around should recall that he was unable to figure out how I passed every test he through at me. I'm still waiting for Phase Two of the tests. I understand from the press that he gave up trying to duplicate what I did using non-magical means."

"What is that thing on the podium?"

"That is my friend Smaug." I got a couple of chuckles from those who caught the joke. "He followed me home from Velar one day, and he's kept me company ever since. I'm not sure just what he is, but he's the closest thing to a dragon I've run across. Even if he is a little on the small side." The moment I mentioned Velar, the questions started coming in piles and the volume went up as everyone tried to make themselves heard.

<CRACK>

"Ok, everyone pipe down. Yes, Velar is another world. Yes it's populated by people who look like a variant of the Terran Fox. You want anything more then that, I'll try to talk Kalindra into coming to class one time before it ends. It will depend upon her schedule and how the time shift works out between here and there on class night." They were still talking, but had quieted down so I could make myself heard.

"Ok, let’s get this show started." I held out my arms and focused the energy to create a spherical ball of energy about three feet in diameter. "This is raw magical energy. It will do nothing until shaped by the mind of the Mage who created it. Most of what people think of as magic, is simply the Mage changing the form of this energy to accomplish what he or she has in mind. The witchlight that you saw earlier is simply magical energy focused such that it begins to radiate photons..."

Chapter Two

I knew something was wrong, even before I pulled into the parking lot of the high school where the class was being held. "Well, you ready to cover my back again?"

"As always. They just don't learn very fast do they?"

As I pulled into the lot, I spotted what had triggered my warning spell. Surrounding the entrance to the high school were several dozen people with signs. Most of them were the standard ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' crap that I'd seen everywhere. Intermixed with them were a couple of new ones that warned about 'corrupting the youth'. I also spotted the gal that I'd thrown out of class the first night.

"This is going to be fun. I guess she figures if she can't learn it, nobody should."

"You want me high or cloaked?"

"High should do for now. These people already know I'm coming, so hiding isn't going to help any." I got out of my van and popped the rear hatch. Two of Penny's magitech remotes floated out and took up position above and behind me. About the time I slammed the hatch and shielded the van, the crowd got around to noticing that I had arrived. "Let's get this over with. I hope they didn't scare off the entire class. A couple of them showed some promise." With my note case in one hand, and Penny guarding my back, I headed for the door.

They weren't quite as stupid as they had seemed. As I got close, they scattered and formed a corridor that lead to the entrance. "Must have been a slow night at the Bingo Parlor again. Don't you people have something better to do than harass private citizens?"

"You may was well leave now. You can go on in if you want, but we aren't going to let anyone else inside. You're not going to teach your perversions to our children you God Damned Witch!"

"How many times to I have to tell you clowns. I'm a Mage, not a Witch. There is a difference, even if you don't know what it is."

One of the idiots holding a 'suffer' sign piped up. "Mage, Witch, who cares. You're going to burn in hell for your sins."

"Yeah? Well until your God sees fit to strike me down. I suggest the whole lot of you go pray yourselves into a stupor someplace else. I've got a class to teach and I don't intend on letting you clowns interfere." I let a witchlight flare into life above me. "Anyone who attempts to block this entrance, gets a free trip to the place of my choosing, understand?"

I could see them thinking it over. This wasn't the first, nor would it be the last demonstration, that simply vanished into thin air after annoying me. They would all be safe, but would find themselves standing naked in the middle of a strange city. Very few every made the same mistake twice. The were arguing amongst themselves, when my warning spell went up like a rocket.

"Shit, it's a setup." I was shielded, so the bullet just bounced off and fell to the ground. "Damnit, these assholes just won't learn!"

"He's on the school roof boss."

"Yeah, I've got him." A couple of seconds later, a figure still holding a rifle, floated up from the roof and into the night sky. The protesters had scattered at the rifle shot, but were watching me from behind what ever cover they had found. As soon as I started to lower the idiot with the rifle down to the ground, they all started running. "Huh, what gives?"

I found out as the gunman got close enough to see. "Boss, he's wired!"

That was all the warning I got before the gunman and the dynamite he was wearing detonated in my face. When the smoke cleared, I was still levitating a few scraps of cloth in mid-air. The gunman and a good portion of the entryway had been destroyed by the blast.

"Well, it's been a while since someone was crazy enough to try that little stunt. They must be getting desperate or something. You ok?" The remotes had been buffeted by the blast, but they had been so over designed that I would have been surprised if they had suffered more than a little paint scrape.

"I'm fine. He didn't leave much for the police to pickup did he."

I was looking at the remains of the entryway. "He didn't leave much of anything. You have a scan of this? I'm going to have to restore it or the University is going to get billed for it. That would be the end of your little experiment real fast." One of the remotes scooted off into the sky and activated its holo-projector.

"This do?"

I looked at it and memorized the image Penny had provided. "Yeah, that should do just fine." I backed up so I could see the entire damaged area and started the spell that would restore the entryway to its original condition. A minute or two later, you couldn't tell that it had even been damaged. That is, as long as you didn't mind the red stains that were scattered around the parking lot. When I turned back, the protesters were no where in sight.

"I guess they decided to cut their losses."

"They never learn. Or at least they don't have much in the way of memories."

While Penny and I were talking, a couple of the students in my class walked up and were listening to us. "Is it always this bad?"

"Naw, most of the time they just make a token appearance and leave. It's been months since they found someone stupid enough to try to kill me. Falwell must be getting desperate again."

"Will the same thing happen to us?"

They were looking at each other like they had just realized for the first time what they had gotten themselves into. "Yes, I expect so. You've also hit on the topic of tonight’s class. Any of you who succeed in casting your first spell. Will automatically become a target for every loony with a bible that thinks they know what's best for your soul." I could see a couple of them thinking that they would be better off leaving right now.

"You have one advantage though that I'll be talking about in detail during class tonight. You may be outnumbered, but you will be far from helpless." I held the door open and waved them inside. "If you're still interested, come on in and we'll talk about it." One of them turned and walked away, but the rest stepped through the entryway. "Penny, leave one of your remotes out here to keep watch. I don't expect any more trouble, but it never hurts to be careful."

"Will do. Give them hell boss."

I started laughing as the door closed behind me. "I think it's supposed to be the other way around if you believe the various churches..."