Chapter 1

“Sorry about this,” the rogue-mage hunter said, throwing us some food, “Nothing personal. I just need the money.”
“So… would you be willing to make a deal?” I asked calmly, politely, “I can enchant something for you if you’d let me go.”
“Yeah,” the other guy, a young boy, by his looks, said, “I’m sure we could do something for you, right?”
“A nice offer, but I’m kinda falling behind my quota. I need this job.”
“Oh. Well, I tried.” I sighed.
The other two mages tied up with me gave me looks like I was crazy.
The man shut the door, and the three of us were left in silence.
And by the way, in case you’re thinking we can just use magic to get out, think again. Magic is very hard. Takes a long time. Have to enchant items and everything. All our enchanted stuff was taken away, so we have nothing.
“I can’t believe my luck,” the girl muttered.
“Well, we were all bound to get caught eventually,” the boy said, “With all the trouble people go to looking for us.”
“I’m not rogue,” the girl said, “I just got robbed, and they took my license with them. And this is the one time I’m actually asked to see it.”
Wow, that is bad luck.
“Well, if what you’re saying is true, then you’ll go free, right? They keep records of who has a license, so they’ll know you’re not rogue. Although it is still illegal to practice magic without the physical license. Just a fine, I think. You have nothing to worry about. I, on the other hand… will probably die.”
“You don’t seem bothered by that…”
“I am. Deeply. But if I’m gonna die, I’d rather not waste what time I have left worrying about it.”
“Wish I could be that calm.”
“Meditation,” I explained, “I’ve gotten… quite good at not letting my emotions control me. Focus is very important if you wish to stay alive.” I laughed. “Although I suppose I don’t need to worry about that anymore, do I? Not unless one of you has a plan to get us out of here.”
“I… might,” the boy said.
“You do?”
“I… I don’t know. I think so.”
“Well, let’s hear it.”
“No. I… it’s too hard to explain right now. Plus, he’d be mad.”
“Who?”
“Uh… just… forget I said anything, okay? Just… forget it.”
<Sarcasm>Wow, he’s not suspicious or anything…</sarcasm>
Silence for a while.
“So… what makes you so certain you’ll get the death penalty?” the girl asked me a while later. “I thought that was only if you do something really bad.”
“Nah. Also applies if you just seem ‘dangerous’ because you have power and practice the dark arts. Also, I’ve been falsely accused of some nasty stuff.”
“The dark arts? You…” The girl seemed frightened.
“It’s not like I had a choice. Nobody will teach the light arts to someone without a license.”
“Then get a license.”
“Easy for you to say.” I laughed. “I tried several times. Did not work. Too powerful, I guess.”
“Yeah. We couldn’t get approval either,” the boy said.
Before I could ask about “we”, the truck was toppled over by a powerful blast that wretched the doors over.
Huh. So… I guess we’re escaping. That’s nice.