“So, what’s all this about?” Kora asked. “You built … speakers?”

  Since his sister was taking over a little, Modak suppressed a sigh of relief. “Right, sort of. So, do any of you remember me working on those small mana cassettes? I’ve been working on them for a while, so I’m sure I brought it up at least once. Anyway, using that as a base, I was first scouted by Miss Boreard to create a method to store auditory magic. Basically … chants or bardic magic, all that kind of stuff. But as I was working on that, I realized the opportunity for something else. I figured out how to … make magic from nothing. Basically spellcasting without a caster. And this is the first part of my presentation.”

  As Modak explained, he could tell that his siblings and Liam seemed pretty curious, though his parents were confused. Rather, they were close to suspicious.

  “Without a caster? How is that supposed to work? What’s next, cars without a driver?” Modak’s father scoffed, shaking his head.

  Modak frowned lightly. “Uh … you know, self-driving cars are a thing, but that’s beside the point. It’s still being controlled by someone, like, I created all the tracks that define the magic signature. But rather than the mana being transformed and altered through a person, it’s done through machines.”

  As he was talking, he noticed Liam walking over to the tablet, tapping a particular one of the songs displayed on it. Medieval music started to play as the bricks started rearranging themselves, and the young vampire stared at the view in front of him excitedly.

  “Whoa!” the twins said in unison.

  Pock, one of Modak’s brothers, snapped a few pictures. “You made this happen? That’s pretty cool.”

  The forced smile on Modak’s face slowly grew more genuine. “Thanks, I appreciate it. Yeah, I’m trying to figure out other ways to cast spells mechanically. Right now, I’m working on a proposal for a way to construct synthetic magic circles, though I’ll have to work on my First Circle thesis before then … this whole thing is kind of a steppingstone, so—”

  “First Circle? What are you talking about?” his father asked with a frown.

  “You know … First Circle. To become an official wizard of the Tower. Then Second Circle, Third Circle, and so on,” Modak explained, and his father groaned.

  “I know that, son, but why are you talking about becoming a wizard? You’re a mechanic! An engineer!”

  “A Magic Engineer, Dad. I would actually be one of the first Magic Engineers to become an official wizard if things go well. And, well, Miss Boreard is the sponsor of the project and agreed to being my mentor for the thesis, so it looks like that’s going to go well …”

  “And who is this ‘Miss Boreard’ that you keep talking about?” Modak’s mother asked, shaking her head. “What is she thinking, putting ideas like that into your head. I don’t know what kind of tricks you’re playing here, but you’re not a wizard, Modak. You’re an orc, a true orc!”

  Immediately, Modak’s façade dropped. “What are you even talking about? I’ve always wanted this. And now that I finally get there, you start acting like this?”

  Modak’s parents looked at each other for a moment, then back over at their son. His father stretched out his hand, placing it on Modak’s arm. “Son, we … just never thought you would get to this point. Your very being rejects mana … magic. We figured you would burn yourself out on this game sooner or later, so—”

  “Game? What the hell are you even talking about? Does this look like a game to you?” Modak asked, pointing at the castle currently being constructed out of the plastic bricks. His mother sighed lightly.

  “Truthfully? It does just look like you’re playing with some toys, son. Please, just stop with this nonsense and forget about being a wizard. Your father needs your help in the garage, so—”

  Modak laughed in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how hard I’ve worked for this? For you two, for them”—Modak pointed at his younger siblings—“and all you can do is try and tear me down again? By all the fucking gods, could you really be any more selfish?”

  “Selfish? How dare you! Do you know what we sacrificed to raise you and your brothers?” Modak’s father raised his voice, slamming his hand onto the table in front of him. The people in the crowd behind them started to listen in on the conversation, because of course they did.

  “That doesn’t give you the right to try and decide what’s the right thing for me and my life.”

  Modak’s mother shook her head annoyedly. “We better talk to that Boreard lady. If she thinks she can brainwash you into abandoning us, then she’s never met an orc mama.”

  “No— Mom, please, you can’t do that; she’s—”

  “What, some fancy-schmancy magic lady? So what! If she won’t let you come back with us, then—”

  “I just told you that this is what I want!” Modak followed after his mother as she pushed her way through the crowd, as if trying to search for Miss Boreard. “Just calm down and listen to what I’m telling you! I want to keep working at the Magic Tower! Do you even know how monumental this discovery is? Dozens of mages came up to me today to congratulate me! People that treated me like dirt, like less than a person just because I don’t have mana! Even they can see that this is special, that I am doing something special, so why can’t you?”

  Modak’s mother stared him in the eye, scoffing. “Orc blood is wasted on you.”

  Stopping in his tracks, Modak looked at the back of his mother disappearing in the crowd. “… If that’s what you think, then … I …” He stood there quietly. He didn’t know what to do; his mind had burnt out. He could see his father push past him silently, just looking at him with the same kind of disdain that his mother did.

  Soon, Modak managed to get himself to turn around and walk back to the stall. And there, he at least had some people waiting for him. With his older sister holding him, Modak stepped into the back of the stall, reeling from what just happened.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Restricted

  Ryan turned around as he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. In front of him, Yanna was glancing around at different stalls. “Hey, Ryan, how’s it going? Sorry, but have you seen Modak?”

  “Modak?” Surprised, Ryan looked over in the direction of his friend’s stall. It was a bit out of the way, but it really wasn’t hard to find at all, especially with the massive crowd in front of it that was drawing in more and more attention. “Isn’t he at his stall? You know, at the very back to the left over there.”

  Yanna immediately shook her head, looking more and more concerned. “No, I was supposed to meet him there, but his coworker told me that he just walked off; apparently, he had a fight with his parents?”

  “With his—” Ryan’s eyes widened before he let out a loud groan. “Yeah, alright, he told me he was nervous about how his parents were going to react. They’re not the biggest fans of magic.”

  “Oh … I didn’t …” Taken aback, the minotaur pulled her hand to her chest. She seemed surprised that she didn’t know about this.

  However, she didn’t have much time to get lost in thought, as Ryan quickly tapped her arm. “I think I see his sister over there. The one with red highlights in her hair.”

  “Are you sure? Where?” Yanna asked, looking around nervously. Realizing that the minotaur was pretty frazzled, Ryan turned toward his mother and briefly excused himself. Pushing through the crowd, Ryan soon reached Kora.

  “Yo,” he said with a slight wave, shooting a smile and a wink over to Liam. To Ryan’s surprise, everyone seemed to be in a quite sour mood. “Everything alright here?”

  “Oh, uh … Ryan, right? Have you seen my brother?” Kora asked nervously. She was looking around just as much as Yanna was, though she seemed much more anxious than the minotaur. Ryan looked back at Yanna, whose worry only grew at that.

  “No, we haven’t. Yanna has been looking for him too, and I thought maybe you knew … but I guess not.” Ryan sighed, running his hand through his hair while trying to think. “What happened earlier? Did Modak say anything before he left?”

  Kora shook her head. “No, he was just really freaking out … hyperventilating … all that. I’m really worried about him.”

  “Oh, gods …” Yanna nervously pulled out her phone to give texting Modak one more shot. Ryan was thinking intensely as well, then an idea popped into his mind. Knowing Modak, he probably had the coin with him that acted as proof that he was Ryan’s aide. And knowing Runar … that coin was more than just a piece of metal.

  “You guys wait here; I think I have a way to find him. Just … enjoy your day for a bit, maybe get to know each other. You haven’t met yet, right?” Ryan said, and Yanna flinched as she glanced past her phone. It really was the first time she had met Modak’s siblings. Their home was a bit too small for Yanna, having been constructed for orcs, so she hadn’t come to visit yet beyond dropping Modak off in front of the building.

  “Right, sorry! I’m Yanna; it’s really nice to meet you!” Scrambling to introduce herself and make a good first impression, the minotaur pushed her phone back into her pocket before extending her hand toward the orc in front of her.

  Kora smiled lightly, shaking Yanna’s hand, and Ryan turned back around. He made his way back to his mother and uncle, whispering to Runar, “Do the coins you gave Modak and Silvia have a tracking function?”

  Runar pulled back, surprised, looking at Ryan with a slight frown. “How do you … No, you know what, never mind; I’ll just stop getting surprised. Yes, they do. Why? What happened?”

  “Just find Modak for me. Something happened and he ran off. We don’t know where he is,” Ryan explained. His uncle looked at him with a slight scoff.

  “That’s highly unethical, you know? The tracking spells are on there for emergencies.”

  Staring into his uncle’s eyes without another word, Ryan simply kept waiting. Runar rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll just reuse the familiar I made before. It still has enough mana left in it for that, as long as Modak isn’t too far away. But if he’s in the Channel … it should be fine.”

  Runar pulled out the paper mouse and then grabbed his pen from his inner jacket pocket. He wrote a few runes onto the head and body of the paper mouse and then handed it over to Ryan.

  “There you go. It should be able to find its way now. But be careful to retrieve it when you’re done; I don’t want some other mage picking it up.”

  Though Ryan didn’t know why it mattered if another mage saw these runes, considering that they didn’t seem to be any particularly unique ones, he was also aware that most magic-users were pretty protective of their work. Ryan squatted and placed the mouse on the ground. Though Ryan was already standing at the edge of the path, the paper mouse immediately started running farther off the path and into one of the nearby alleys.

  He didn’t know why Modak would have gone in that direction, but if there was one thing that Ryan felt like he could trust about his uncle, it was how skilled he actually was. If he said that this mouse was going to lead him to Modak, or rather to the coin that he was carrying with him, then Ryan just had to trust that.

  Leaving behind the main event of the day, Ryan followed the mouse through the Channel’s side roads. This was the first time he had seen this part of town like this. Usually, the Channel was practically pristine, like someone had scrubbed it all down just that morning. Though that was probably because high-tech street cleaners basically did that every other day. As if to make sure that the rich and powerful never had to get dirty or bother with picking up after themselves, cleaning magic was used to take care of most parts of the Channel that people frequented every day. Meanwhile, if you stepped just a few meters off of the main paths, that reality changed almost completely.

  There was dirt and grime everywhere. It was almost worse than in many other parts of New Riverside, to the point where Ryan wanted to pick up the paper mouse and carry it around to stop it from getting dirty. Not because he was worried it would stop working but rather because he felt bad for it.

  Ryan jogged for almost ten minutes until he found a trace of Modak. His suit jacket was thrown to the ground near some police tape that was blocking off people from going beyond it. Ryan somehow hadn’t realized that they were this close to the area that had been destroyed a few weeks earlier. He climbed past the police tape to continue following the mouse, soon spotting a certain orc sitting on a bench not too far away.

  Modak had his face in his hands and was clearly very overwhelmed by something, though Ryan had no idea what. Carefully, he approached, picking up the mouse to stop it from startling his friend.

  “Yo,” Ryan said as he came closer. At least this part of town was quiet enough to allow for a private conversation. Flinching out of surprise, not having expected someone to find him there, Modak turned around. But when he saw that it was Ryan trying to talk to him, he calmed down a bit. At least for a moment, because he soon turned away to try and hide his face. And Ryan could tell why. He had clearly been crying.

  “Hey …” Modak slowly got out, “how’d you find me?”

  “It was an emergency, so don’t be mad, but … the coins have a tracking marker, and Runar helped me find you,” Ryan explained as he dropped down on the bench next to his friend. He purposefully didn’t look at Modak, since he clearly didn’t want someone else to see him cry. Ryan understood that pretty well.

  “Oh … That feels a bit … well, invasive,” Modak pointed out. He was fidgeting with the sketch that Ryan had given him earlier that was supposed to help him calm down. “So, what’s the emergency?”

  Ryan scoffed quietly. “Dude, you are. You suddenly disappeared, and both Kora and Yanna were looking for you.”

  A gasp of realization came from the young orc. “Oh, gods, I forgot that Yanna was coming … Ah, fuck …” He practically slammed his back into the bench’s backrest while his fingers dug into the paper to the point where he was almost tearing it.

  “It’s fine; she’s not mad or anything, she’s just worried.”

  The two young men were sitting there quietly. While they were pretty open when it came to their emotions, it was still hard to bring up clearly tough topics like this. Modak didn’t want to pull Ryan into his business, while Ryan didn’t want to push Modak to talk about something he wasn’t ready to talk about. They sat there for a minute or two, just in silence, before Modak quietly spoke up.

  “… How is your family about … magic?” he started. “Outside of the Aglecard family, obviously.”

  “Well, it’s not like I really know that family beyond Runar. And, you know … my grandparents on my mom’s side aren’t necessarily super comfortable with magic, but they know that it’s not as dangerous as it used to be.”

  “I … don’t know what to do. I’ve tried so, so many times to explain to my parents that magic is fine and that a little bit of mana is flowing through basically all tech these days. They’re happy to ignore the signal-boosting influence of magic in their phones and the internet, but whenever I try to talk to them about any of my projects, they’re just … mad. They basically hate me for actually going into a magic-related job. They’ve always known how much I love magic and all the concepts and ideas behind it, but at that point, it was probably easy to just play it off as a kid’s fantasies.”

  When Modak started talking, he basically wasn’t able to stop anymore. Now that he had started airing it all out, it was like a dam had finally been broken. It all just flowed out, and he wasn’t able to stop himself anymore.

  The way he felt like his parents always looked at him with some level of contempt whenever he spoke about magic, to how they clicked their tongues or rolled their eyes whenever he brought up one of his new projects. But it didn’t stop there; Modak even complained about the way that they acted outside of magic. About how his father let himself be pushed around by people at work, about how his mother was clearly clocked out of the marriage already, spending all her time with her “best friend.” Modak got especially mad when he started talking about how they acted toward Kora, again and again disrespecting who she truly was, calling her by her deadname, even though she had been his older sister for more than half a decade already.

  “And then they dare to tell me that I don’t deserve to have orc blood flowing through my veins?!”

  Ryan could basically hear Modak’s teeth grinding as he forced out his words. It was to the point where Ryan took a few moments to actually register what his friend had just said.

  “Wait, what? They told you that?”

  For the first time since Modak had started ranting about his parents, Ryan looked over at him. He had been just looking at the building across the road, pretending that he hadn’t noticed Modak’s tears. But at this point, he couldn’t do that any longer.

  Modak slowly nodded. “Yeah … I guess telling them that I want to become an official wizard was just a bit too much.”

  “Okay, wait.” Once again, Ryan was taken aback, though for a whole other reason. “There’s a lot of info here, but … you Magic Engineers can become wizards?”

  Modak smiled lightly. “I could be one of the first, I guess. There’s been a few mages that dabbled in engineering but nobody that’s been, like … mainly a Magic Engineer. And there’s definitely not been a wizard without any mana to speak of. I won’t be able to get up there to something ridiculous like Fifth or Sixth Circle, but just being a First Circle wizard? Ryan, that’s been my dream since I first heard about it. And my parents just …”

  Ryan sat there, looking at his best friend. He had no idea what to say or how to help Modak through this. But in the end, rather than saying something wrong, Ryan chose to just say nothing at all. He placed his hand on Modak’s shoulder. He wanted to show Modak that he was there for him and that he could just let it all out without worry.