Location: Magicon Empire; Magicon Administration; Starfield System; Arcanus; Washten

The next two weeks pass faster than ever, and I find myself aboard another starship, or even better, already down on a new planet. Our shuttle just landed in the city of Washten on planet Arcanus and I'm currently accompanying a group of four people from the Diplomacy course.

The trip was rather fast as we didn't leave the central part of The Empire behind. We're still within one of the Magicon-governed star systems. It was basically just a jump out of the central Magicon System and then a short trip through a wormhole and then we were already here.

So there was no time to get to know the people with me. I barely know their names and additionally, they all keep to themselves all the time. It's so different from my trip with Stan, Caroline, and the others just a few weeks ago. A shame that the trip with Dave was canceled.

Anyway, at least the setting my group is tasked to handle sounds rather interesting: My four teammates are supposed to visit a foreign magic-obsessed sect that recently settled here in the city and try to get them to comply with The Empire's laws and regulations. Apparently, they come from somewhere very different and try to convert the people around them to their way of thinking – something that is an absolute no-go within The Empire.

So here we are, tasked to stop them from fucking around, bluntly said. I don't really know what's so different about them because my group is, well my group, and as I mentioned before, they don't really interact with me. But I guess I'll find out what we're dealing with soon.

We walk down one of the main streets past shops, restaurants, and more than a few bars that are still closed because it's still early in the day. My team seems to be fully focused as they rush past everything.

After about twenty minutes of walking the busy part of the town ends and the properties start to become bigger and bigger. Suddenly, there are large fences with spacious lawns and big mansions behind them.

Our group stops at the gate of one of those properties and a tall and thin guy with short blonde hair named Carlo presses the bell.

It almost takes five minutes until someone answers but the diplomats in training wait patiently the whole time.

"Yes," comes a voice from the intercom and stays silent afterward.

Carlo leans closer and speaks up. "Good morning, sir, my name is Carlo Lopez. My team and I are with the diplomatic corps of The Empire. We should have an appointment with the leadership of your uhm… society at ten. If you'd be so kind and check, please?"

"Yes, one moment," comes the reply. Another agonizing two minutes later, the voice comes back. "Yes Mr. Lopez, I have you on my list, please come in. Someone will greet you at the door and lead you to our conference room. Welcome to the Sorcerers Society."

Sorcerers Society, huh? A fitting name for a sect, I'd say. The gate opens slowly and the five of us start walking toward the manor.

Things get strange once we enter the mansion. A woman in a maid outfit opens the door for us and then leads us through a maze of hallways until we arrive at a conference room with a lot of tables placed in a U-shape. She asks us to sit down at the bottom of the U and wait for a bit.

Carlo thanks her and we sit down. Then we wait. The first five minutes are okay. It's barely worth mentioning. But when the timer I started on my interface nears the 30-minute mark, I start to get really annoyed. Are they being serious? Who lets their guests wait for 30 minutes? That's ridiculous. As if they want to show who's boss…

Then, finally, the door opens and a trio of men in black robes and fancy hats enters. I glance at my interface and barely stop myself from shaking my head. It's been exactly 30 minutes…

Anyway, the men look at us and one of them even turns up his nose. They continue walking across the room and sit down at the top end of one of the sides of the U. And all that without saying a single word.

This is so strange. I'm glad that I don't have to do anything here. I don't know if all this bothers my team… They have perfect poker faces. Who knows, maybe this is normal and they learned how to deal with something similar?

The silence stretches until the single girl in my group gets up and faces the three men. "Thank you for meeting with us, my team and I are glad that we could find an appointment so quickly. As you know, we're from The Empire's diplomatic corps and here to discuss your role within our society."

She pauses for a moment and tilts her head slightly while looking at the three men. There's still no reaction, it's weird. I spot a very slight smile on the leftmost man's face, but that's all.

My teammate continues. "It has come to our attention that your group actively tries to convert people in the vicinity of your organization to a belief and lifestyle that does not correspond with the values of The Empire. We are here to resolve that. If you need a reminder of what I'm talking about, please take a look."

She points to the left of her and starts casting a spell. A projection of a list with different bullet points appears in the air between our two groups.

Now there is a reaction! As soon as the projection appeared, all three men change their behavior completely. Gone is the disinterest and the turned-up nose. It's replaced by eager expressions and the one in the middle suddenly starts to speak. Was her spell the trigger? But why would they base their whole behavior on a spell? Ugh, I should really have informed myself about the Sorcerers Society Sect beforehand.

"Welcome to the Sorcerers Society Miss Mage, it's our pleasure to have you here. We'll obviously try our best to resolve every existing issue with your help. Let me just gather our files real quick. Would you like something to drink in the meantime?"

She nods in reply. "Sure, thank you." She quickly glances at me and the rest of the team. "We'd like some water, please."

The man acknowledges her and taps something on his interface a few times. Then we fall back into silence until the door opens and another woman in a maid outfit steps inside. She's carrying a large box and walks over toward the men. Right before them, she stumbles and almost drops the box.

The man on the right scowls and growls. "Stupid wench!" He waves his hand and the woman vanishes with a purple flash.

What the hell?!

The three men continue as if nothing has happened and they start a discussion with the girl in my group. The three boys and I are still being ignored. A few minutes later, another woman in a maid outfit arrives with a single glass of water and hands it to our teammate. She then quickly exits while the discussion continues. From what I managed to catch, they already resolved two minor issues.

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But the biggest thing still hasn't been touched. It seems as if they only treat Mages as real people. I can't come up with another explanation. I mean the only one of us that isn't ignored and is treated with respect has outed herself as a Mage. I'm horrified that such people exist. Even if this is probably only actors or something. But FBC wouldn't come up with something like this if there wasn't a real-life example out there.

As we're still treated as if we don't exist, I walk over to the three boys to chat with them. "What the hell is happening here?" I ask them in a whisper.

Carlo is the one to whisper back. "They believe that there are two classes of people. Mages and everyone else. And as they are all Mages, they obviously believe that normal people are worthless."

"Yeah, I gathered that… But you're all Mages too, so why are you staying in the background? Also, why hasn't the issue been addressed yet?"

He chuckles softly. "You have to be patient. All in due time. Carina is currently feeling out the waters, so to speak. We need to understand how they think and how to best approach the main issue. Sure, the situation here is so over the top that the normal procedure would be just kicking them out of The Empire, but well, we wouldn't learn anything if we did it that way, so we try to get them to change their thinking… Slowly."

Oh, well, it's their show. I think I'd have lost my temper a long time ago. "Alright, I guess you guys know best… I'll be over there, call me if you need anything."

I walk back to my chair a few meters away from them and lean back. Then I select a random game on my interface and start gaming while they continue their discussion. Somehow, I have the feeling that this will take a long time.

I was right, six hours later, Carina says goodbye to the three men and makes an appointment to continue their talks tomorrow. From the fragments I managed to catch, they are still far from tackling the main issue of the men's worldview.

Carina walks straight to the boys of my team and they begin to whisper quite agitated. Then, suddenly, I have a message popup on my interface. It's from Carina, asking me to teleport us all out and back to the ship as soon as she asks me out loud. She also tells me to not bother with walking over to them if I can do that.

That has my eyebrows almost vanishing into my hairline. What's going on? Some kind of power play? My curiosity spikes and I give her a slight nod. I'm ready.

She fully turns in my direction. "Please get us out of here."

As you wish! On a whim, I decide to be extra sloppy and let a lot of magic power slip through the spell. The whole room starts humming with invisible magic, then I trigger the spell and the five of us vanish in a bigger-than-average purple flash.

The last thing my Space Sense shows me before we're back on our ship is the looks of awe and horror on the three men's faces.

Carina claps her hands. "That was perfect, thank you, Sara! Oh, I'm so looking forward to tomorrow."

"Why's that?" I ask in slight confusion.

"Well, they think they are so much better than us and then there's you, a person I tried to frame as completely normal the whole day, casually doing such a magical power play. This is gonna shake their worldview, and this is where we can start addressing the real issue!"

She seems very excited now, and I can kinda guess her reasoning but I don't really think that this will work out as planned. Still, I nod, I've learned my part during the last excursion. I'm just here to observe and teleport things around.

Turns out I was wrong. When we return to the sect's mansion the next day, things are very different. For once, I'm not ignored at all anymore. Everyone basically worships the ground I'm walking on as if I'm some kind of messiah. It's really freaking me out a bit! The other thing is that they're also walking on eggshells around the three boys in my group as if they fear that they're also hidden Mages – which they obviously are.

Anyway, discussions go much smoother today and the whole team is involved. The sect men even try to include me on various occasions, but I respectfully decline every time.

Carina takes the lead again, but this time the boys play their part as well. Half an hour into the discussion, Carlo casually presents his own magic when he has a stack of paper floating over. The sect men stop in their tracks and stare.

While I'm still wondering why they are even using paper, there is another shift because one of the three men seems to cast a spell. If I'm not mistaken, it's a Utility spell. My hunch is confirmed a second later when they start gesturing at each other as if they were talking. So it's a Communication spell.

My team waits patiently until the men are finished, then one of them addresses us. "So just to clarify things, you all are Mages?"

In response, the two boys who haven't shown any magical abilities yet, both cast a quick spell and Carina confirms with a nod. "Yes, we are."

The man hesitates for a second, then continues. "Okay, that's certainly a surprise… So how common are Mages around here?"

Carlo steps forward and smiles. I think that's the question my team was waiting for. "Very common. In fact, everyone can be a Mage if they want to. We have awakening cores that turn normal people into Mages."

All three men stop in their tracks and stare at Carlo with their mouths open. This time the man left of the previous speaker finds his voice first. "Does that mean that everyone who isn't a Mage made a deliberate choice not to pursue a magical path? Let's say people like our maids here?"

Carlo nods. "Yeah, I'd say so. Why don't you ask them yourself?"

The third man nods and leaves the room. A minute later he returns with two of the maids following him. The first man addresses them. "Is it true that you chose not to be a Mage and if you wanted to, you could become one?"

The left maid, a blonder woman looks at the man as if he grew a second head. "Yeah, of course! But why would I? It's probably hard as hell to learn all those stupid spells and you've got all the Magitech things here anyway."

The raven-haired maid next to her just shrugs. "What she said."

"Well, shit!" Says the main speaker of the sect men before turning to his companions. There is another Communication spell being cast and a silent discussion starts among the men. They shake and nod their heads a lot but my attention is elsewhere.

I study the maids in confusion. Why would they work for such people? As nothing is happening at the moment, I decide to just ask and address the blonde maid. "Why are you even working for them if they are treating you like trash?"

She stares at me, not saying anything for a moment. It's like she's thinking for an answer. That reminds me that this all is probably just a big setup as well, just like the pirates during my last taxi duty. I probably asked something that wasn't in the script. I smile slightly at the thought.

Finally, the maid is ready to answer and shrugs. "I'm not sure… The pay's not bad and the cook here is amazing. Also, sooner rather than later a group like you was due to knock their heads straight. I just had to be patient."

I give her a thumbs-up in reply, my curiosity is satisfied at the moment. Just in time because the sect men seem to have concluded.

They address my team. "You've brought quite a lot to our attention and we start to see the errors in our ways… We'd be happy to discuss how to turn this into a good outcome for everyone!"

What follows are the longest five hours of my entire life! Endless discussions about who knows what and it doesn't seem to stop. My brain turns off almost immediately and I jump into the saving embrace of my games on my interface. But even they start to become boring after a few hours and I decide to go for a walk through the mansion.

In the end, I sit down with the two maids in the dining room and we start talking. In the beginning, they're still in their maid role, but when I tell them that I'm not part of the diplomat students, they drop it and tell me that they are actually actresses, earning a bit of money on the side while studying.

After that, things get easier and we talk about pretty much everything. Gravity Ball, life on Terra compared to life here, hobbies, and so on. We also exchange contacts, just in case our travels bring us close in the future. They're pleasant enough to talk to again.

They have one more surprise for me though, because when I ask them about the real reason why they don't want to be Mages, they just laugh and quickly cast some spells that change their clothes into more normal things. I close my jaw with a click and stare at them. That was certainly unexpected.

Then, finally, my team is done and they come into the dining room too, followed by the three sect men. As soon as they shake on their final agreement, the men drop their act and grin broadly.

"Congratulations, well done! We had a blast doing this assessment with you. Do you want to stay for dinner? Our cook really is amazing!" He winks at the blonde maid actress and she blushes a little.

My team accepts the reveal with only some slightly raised eyebrows and gladly accepts the invitation for dinner.

The food really is good and we stay until late in the evening. Turns out they are all from the same acting school and do stuff like our assessment as a side hustle.

In the end, we all say goodbye and wish each other good luck for our respective studies. Then I teleport us back up to our ship and we head back to Terra.

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