Young Writers Society

Mage wasn't scared.

He really wasn't. He could control darkness. He had been in eerie, empty forests before. And the cold, though annoying, wasn't all that worrying when he could use fire to warm himself up. He was using his Sin now to conjure a little flame in the palm of his hands. It was also just bright enough to cut through the darkness. Not bright enough to illuminate the entire forest, but enough to give them just a bit of light.

He moved closer to Harry, hoping that Harry had some idea of what to expect.

"...We just have to get to the clearing," he said. He wasn't sure if it was a comment to Harry or a reminder to himself.

Harry nodded at Mage and squinted at the light in his palms. He closed his eyes for a second.

"Best not to have an open flame here, it might draw in monsters, there are more than a few breeds drawn to heat and light, I'll light the way when necessary," said Harry, before noticing that Mage didn't seem fully at ease, and added, "I won't lie and say the forest ahead is safe, its anything but, its one of the most dangerous places around here...but...as long as you stay close to me, you should be fine, besides you seem like someone that knows how to handle themselves in danger somewhat. At any rate, the only monsters you hav...."

A vibration interrupted him. He gave Mage a quick smile, allowing a tiny bit of emotion to show that he shouldn't be afraid before he ruthlessly squashed it down, giving Mage a nod and answering his communicator. It surprisingly wasn't his sister, it was Alpha Pack headquarters. No one there would call just to check on him, not at this hour. What is it this time?

He turned on the receiver in his ear.

"Harry, we have a situation..."

Mage faltered when Harry told him to put out his light.

As Harry seemed to become distracted by something in his ear, Mage looked down at his fire. He didn't want to put it out. He would be okay with getting attacked by whatever lurked in here if it meant he could see them.

...But Harry knew this place better than him.

Taking a deep breath, he extinguished the flame.

It immediately felt cold and dark and Mage felt so scared. He made darkness race up and down his arms, giving him comfortingly little squeezes that Harry thankfully wouldn't be able to see in this light.

He took a step closer to Harry.

Harry listened as the dispatcher rambled on.

"...so anyway, you gotta go into the patch of old forest, retrieve this old scroll and return it," Annadanelsa finally finished, taking a deep breath. Harry was surprised the girl hadn't fainted from saying all of that without stopping.

"Umm...remind me why all four of us need to be on this again?" asked Harry, shaking his head.

"Well, you see, Your Highness," she began but Harry cleared his throat, "I mean, sir, I mean Harry...gosh this is weird to say...I never thought I would be..."

"Stay on topic Anna."

"Sorry, Si...Harry, so anyway once I saw the general danger level of the mission I thought James would be more than enough for it, then I saw the magical component come up later so I thought why not add Vankous...then with the threat of danger Stean sort of added himself and then when we realized you were actually stationed really close to it, they added you too si..Harry."

"Well...I guess it wouldn't be that bad," said Harry.

"Should I tell them to come to the base then?" asked Annadanelsa, "or to your coordinates?"

"Coordinates please, Anna, and thank you, you're taking to the job quite well, I'm glad you haven't gone insane yet," said Harry, smiling.

"Thank you, sir...I mean Harry." The line went dead. Harry smiled and shook his head. Their excitable new intern was proving to be quite useful, not to mention she knew how to handle herself with those ice powers of hers. Realizing he was going off track, he turned towards Mage who seemed to be closer.

He was doing something with the darkness wrapping around him, almost like he was willing it to give him a hug.

"This place isn't that scary," Harry commented, concentrating and tapping his shades so that the nanobots programmed themselves so that the glasses now retreated back into his ear, meshing with his receivers. His eyes opened, glowing a bright dark cyan and as he concentrated, they lit up shining like headlamps in the darkness, cutting a path through it and illuminating the forest in front of them with the light of a thousand flashlights.

Mage stared.

It seemed hypocritical for Harry to say that the woods weren't all that scary after mentioning that it had monsters, but he was more concerned with the way his eyes were glowing. He had never seen anything like that before. And while some new things were expected, that definitely wasn't one of them.

But, more importantly...

Mage crossed his arms, a little bit of his fear ebbing away.

"I can't use my Sin, but you can do that?" he asked.

"I said the monsters are attracted to heat and light, what you're seeing right now is neither...in fact, it emanates cold...which has the opposite effect that heat has," said Harry, barely resisting a smile at the way Mage was acting. It was almost...childish.

There was a sudden flash of light behind them and a purple rectangle of light appeared behind them.

"That looks like light-" Mage started to say, only to be cut off by the sudden flash of light from behind them.

He jumped back - or forward, since the light had come from behind him - in surprise, flame and darkness Sin bursting to life at his fingertips.

"It's not really light," said Harry, "more like the absence of darkness." Harry turned towards the portal. Three figures stepped out. There was Vankous, for some reason still wearing his lab coat and goggles...dark hair in a typical crow's nest, looking like he woke up five minutes ago. James, as usual looking like the he was about to attend a wedding, clad in a full suit and tie with hair all carefully combed and clean shaven. Stean was the only one that looked like he was on an actual mission, wearing his usual green suit.

Mage was pretty sure the explanation of light and darkness was the other way around, but he was still too wary of the newcomers to say anything. Fire and darkness intertwined up and down his arms as he stared at the three from underneath his cloak.

"Morning Darkness," said Stean.

"Sup, Stean," said Harry, "don't worry, you can drop the code names, this guy is friendly enough. Oh and its afternoon here I think, I'm not a hundred percent sure on that though. This forest has a habit of doing weird things to time."

"Like every other haunted forest ever," said Vankous, rolling his eyes, "so Captain Obvious, who is this over here, and what's with the silly looking light show."

"I think that's magic," said Stean, "you're area of expertise, Mr. Team Wizard." Stean flashed Mage and apologetic smile.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" asked James, finally finished with dusting his coat. As if portal travel actually introduced dust.

"Right, where are my manners," said Harry. He turned to Mage. "Guys, this is Magestorrrow Rian. Mage these are my best friends, worst enemies, colleagues, generic morons, take your pick. The one with the lab coat is our resident wizard, the best across all of time, Vankous Frostification, the dude in the suit, regular ol' human, one of the best hackers out there, and pretty handy with a sword or two machine guns, James Bondark...aaand the last one over there is Stean Stakes, very reliable superhero...got a lot of surprises up his sleeve that one, do not let the whole goody two shoes thing fool you."

Vankous did a little bow, floating a few inches off the ground and letting off purple sparks to add to the effect. James proceeded to glow with pride at his introduction while Stean just laughed.

"You should have been a game show host dude," said Stean, "now...is this guy coming with us to retrieve the thing from the thing, we might run into the thing or the thing so we should be careful."

The flames and darkness faded away.

If they were Harry's friends, then Mage didn't need to worry about a fight. He still pulled his hood farther down to hide his horns; he wasn't sure if they would be as understanding as Harry was.

But then Harry called him Mage.

And Mage, who had only been called that by his parents and Kiera, froze right in place. The nickname didn't hold any trauma; it was just a name. But he was so used to being Magestorrow (so used to be brushed aside as demon or cursed or an enemy) that the idea of someone calling him Mage without him requesting it just made his brain shortcircuit. He wondered if this was what an automaton felt like when too much electricity ran through it.

He pulled his hood down even further, face warm and bright red.

"Yeah, why not," said Harry, glancing at Mage. He'd stopped using his magic which hopefully meant he wasn't worried about the trio appearing out of thin air. "I think he can handle a few of those things, there's not that bad. Right Mage? Also maybe a little hi to the three of them would be polite." Harry tried for a small smile.

Mage stiffened when Harry pointed out how quiet he had been.

"I can handle it," Mage said. His blush only got worse when he realized how embarrassing this whole situation was. Kiera would have been laughing if she could have seen him now. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, trying to remember what it was like to interact with such a large group of people. "I know how to protect myself - I've been traveling alone for a few years."

He faltered.

"...And hi," he softly said, ducking his head down.

"Hmm...so he does speak," said Vankous, looking him over like he was watching a zoo animal.

"Now don't start teasing the poor thing," said Stean, "and at any rate we should take stock and see if he really can handle things. "I've been travelling along for a few years could mean literally any level of power."

"You want to get him tested?" asked James.

"Oh perfect idea, run a few light years to the nearest planet with a..." said Harry, "I'm not even going to complete that sentence, that idea is that stupid. No we'll just do a rudimentary eye level thing...see what he can do, that sort of thing."

"Ohh..guinea pig mode, " said Vankous, "I like this. Now if I can conjure a few radioactive pink bunnies..."

"NO RADIOACTIVE BUNNIES, especially NOT pink. No we'll just ask him to show us a few things he can do," said Harry.

"Hmm...that's what I was thinking," said Stean, "so, Mage, are you a...well...mage, no pun intended, or is that a species adaptation...or what exactly...is that fire thing and if I was seeing things correctly, darkness related manipulation all that you can do?"

The warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest faded - only to quickly be replaced by a growing sense of indignation. They were talking about him like he wasn't there. They weren't treating him differently because he was a demon. He knew that.

But knowing that didn't make it hurt any less.

He crossed his arms.

"I have Sin," he said. "All demons and humans have it, but the kind of Sin varies. My Sin is fire and darkness - I can create and manipulate both."