The Licensed Mage

24 Wilks

        Lucy got up and sat on the arm rest with her arm around Claire’s shoulder, “Oh shut up. You’re just jealous.” She turned to Claire effectively ignoring Raven as Henry chuckled behind him, “You sure you’re alright?”

        Claire looked up with a smile, “Yes I’m fine.”

        Lucy wasn’t convinced as she felt slight tremors in her shoulders and came up with an idea, “I know. Why don’t we do a girl’s night? Let’s go out and have a drink.”

        “A girl’s night?”

        “Yeah!” Lucy stood pulling Claire out of the chair, “You, me and Malvina. Let’s invite Tessa too!”

        “Oh I don’t know. I think I just wanna spend a quiet night at home.”

        Lucy caught Malvina with her eye and begged her to help. She caught on what Lucy was trying to do and came up to Claire’s other side, holding onto her arm, “Sounds like fun. Let’s all go drinking and forget the night.”

        Claire tried to protest but lost the fight as they dragged her out of the station. Lucy and Malvina called back as they were leaving, telling the boys to behave and don’t forget to clean up. Raven stared at the door stunned as his partner disappeared. Henry chuckled behind him, patting his shoulder.

        Raven turned in his chair looking up at the man, “Can’t you control your partner better than that?!”

        Henry laughed, “You wanna control ‘er? Be my guest.”

        The girls found themselves drinking in the “Gold Cauldron” pub. They ordered beer as they waited for Tessa to show. She was inclined to deny the invitation but found herself walking inside the pub. She scanned the overcrowded room and quickly saw her new friends waving from the center of the room. She squeezed her way through the crowd and finally sat down.

        “This place is amazing. Do they always let so many in here?”

        The three women laughed as they poured Tessa a drink from the beer pitcher. Lucy pushed the mug to her and encouraged her to have a drink.

        “Let’s toast!” They all held up their mugs as Lucy began the toast, “Here’s to new friendships and teamwork. To saving lives and finding the bad guys. To love!”

        “To love!”

        They all laughed and giggled as they drank the night away. Claire, Malvina and Tessa told stories about growing up as mages. Learning their first spells, the first time their potions exploded, the first time they accidently turned a bully into a frog, Malvina ‘accidently’ doing it more than once. Lucy was fascinated by their stories and always asked for more.

        “So you two knew each other before this?” Lucy pointed to Malvina and Claire as she took a sip from her mug.

        They both looked at each other and giggled as Claire answered, “Yeah she’s the daughter of our Guild Boss Melvin. When I first got my license she was the one you gave me a tour of our office.”

        Tessa’s eyes became huge, “You’re Boss Melvin’s daughter?!”

        Malvina rolled her eyes bringing her mug to her lips, “Don’t remind me. He wants me to follow in his footsteps and become the next Boss but that’s just too stifling for me.”

        Lucy held up her hands, confused, “Ok wait. Mundane here remember? I thought the boss was voted on.”

        Malvina shrugged her shoulders, “In a sense. Every nation gets to choose their Guild Boss by votes but of those voted for, only the Head can say who becomes Boss.”