IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE MORE THAN ONE MAGIC TYPE?
Finnian was curled up in his desk chair in the evening, tired and irritable and still hurt by Hikaru's response from this morning, when his eyes fell on the headline. Not too long ago he'd never have given it the time of day. Even now it looked suspiciously like the types of conspiracy theories that argued for alien sightings and secret government ploys—but a lot of things had changed lately. Curiosity had killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back; and before he knew what he was doing or why, Finnian had already clicked the link.
It didn't look like a clickbait article. Instead Finnian was baffled to find himself faced with what looked like a serious news site, all clean layout and simple colors and barely any ads, although it was obviously not a Light Mage news source. Finnian found he didn't care. The Light side of the story was beginning to seem less and less credible to him by the day.
So he read.
The magic we know, the author had written, is made of a spectrum: Light, Twilit and Dark, with each type fueled by a different group of emotions. Your magic type dictates which part of the spectrum you can sense and utilize, and the rest remains invisible to you. But what if not all people fall cleanly into one of the three categories? Recent studies by a team of international researchers suggest the divide between magic types may be more artificial than we thought.
Intrigued, Finnian kept reading.
Have you ever seen someone you know use magic when there was none around for them to use? What you may have written off as a mistake on your part may have more to it than you think. A new study led by Hecate Solstice and Regina Cole suggests your senses may not have tricked you—they may simply have used a magic type that you had no access to.
According to Solstice, these so-called Spectral Mages can sense a wider range of the magic spectrum and use it effectively. After investigating several hundred incidents of reported "impossible magic," she and her team discovered that ninety-five percent of the tested individuals could use the part of the Twilit spectrum closest to their assumed magic type; almost a third of them had full access to at least two magic types, and one in twenty-five could see and use the full magic spectrum.
"We've only started acknowledging the existence of Twilit Mages very recently," Regina Cole explained when asked how they could stay under the radar for so long. "Everything outside the binary between Light and Dark Magic has been taboo for centuries. In both Light and Dark communities, having too much to do with the other side could get you ostracized or even exiled. It's possible that Spectral Magic is a lot more common than we think, but it's hard to say because the people in question don't know or talk about it."
So how do you know if you or a close one are Spectral? "If you can sense magic that seems too light or dark for your known magic type, it's probably not a mistake," Cole replied. "The same goes for a person in your community using magic you can't see. There's always the possibility that they could be secretly Twilit, but if you can only see their magic sometimes, there's a very good chance they really are a Spectral Mage."
Finnian stopped reading.
An image flashed through his mind, unbidden and unwelcome. Hikaru flicking his hand, too quick for his eyes to follow. An enchantment settling on his senses…
…without any visible magic to go with it.
But…no, impossible. This couldn't be real. It was just a stupid article about a phenomenon no one had ever heard about before—what were the odds that it was true? Most likely Hikaru had simply been too fast for Finnian to notice. Who were these researchers, anyway? Maybe he should look them up before he believed anything they said or wrote.
A search for Regina Cole's name came up suspiciously empty—so empty that Finnian's mind brushed off the fraud option and went straight to exile. There was more on Hecate Solstice. Apparently she was a renowned Dark Mage alchemist who had branched out in recent years, researching Twilit Mages before her current project on Spectral Magic. She was also, for whatever reason, a teacher at a Dark Mage high school, even though it looked like she was leagues overqualified for that position.
All in all, Finnian still had no idea what to think.
But, a little voice in his head whispered, if they were right—then what?
What if Hikaru really was Spectral? What if he could use Twilit Magic—or even Dark? If people found out about that, he'd be as good as finished. At best he'd be shunned, mistrusted, treated as an intruder and called a witch and a spy. At worst he could face exclusion—from competitive flying, from the school, maybe even the Light Mage community as a whole.
You could prove he's not fully Light. Get him off the team, take back your spot as the ace.
And also ruin his life.
When he was younger, his parents had taught him to always fight dirty in a pinch. Not dirty enough to sabotage himself and get caught, just dirty enough to get the job done. The others did the same, they had always told him. If he didn't use underhanded tactics, he'd be stabbed in the back and left behind by the wayside.
But this…this was too dirty for him. He might dislike Hikaru, resent him, everything. He still wanted his position back. Exposing him—if the article was true—would remove his competition for good. But at what cost? Did he really want to be the one to destroy another person's life over a petty rivalry?
Especially, his heart whispered, if that person already has it harder than the rest of us?
Perhaps that made him soft. Perhaps someone else would've done it in his stead. So what? He wasn't his father. He didn't want to fight dirty if all that meant was kicking someone else while they were down.
Your secret is safe with me, Hiyama.
Deep down, he knew it was stupid to care this much. If their situations were reversed, Hikaru would probably have screwed him over in a heartbeat.
And yet here he was. Caring.
He just hoped he was making the right decision here.
~ ~ ~
It was a tradition of the flying team to gather at the ace's house before the higher rounds of the championships, both for a last-minute strategy discussion and some genuine team bonding. Of course, that meant that this year it was technically Hikaru's job to invite everyone else over. Technically, because Finnian had taken the opportunity to usurp the task at once. He had been so obnoxious about it (the comment on Hikaru's sad little dorm room hadn't been wrong, but had it really been necessary?) that Hikaru had almost invited them all to his cramped little room out of spite, but in the end common sense had won out, and he had happily left the part of playing host to Finnian.
So now here he was, already hating every second of this. Finnian's house looked exactly how he had imagined it to look: large and expensive, with white walls and a vast, orderly garden full of neat flowerbeds and carefully-trimmed trees and bushes. He was half expecting an array of maids to go with it; but the Day family, it seemed, preferred to rely on magical help for its household. What were those spirits called again? Brownies? Pixies? It had to be one of those, but he kept mixing the words up.
"It's a nice place, isn't it?" Bianca remarked beside him. "If it were me, I'd give it more life, though. It doesn't look very magical, does it?"
Hikaru nodded quietly. "It looks very clean," he said.
"Yeah, like something out of a real estate catalog. It's a bit sad," she replied. "But on the bright side, it has a lot of space for all of us!"
Finnian's parents, it seemed, weren't home. It was just the team here, sitting together in the living room and the kitchen with drinks and snacks in their hands, laughing and talking. Hikaru remained awkardly in the corner. He didn't feel like he knew these people, not the way they knew each other; and once again he had no idea who to approach or what to say once he did. In the spacious house the voices echoed a little, adding a sense of unfamiliarity to the already stressful noise.
Hikaru wanted to go home.
As he looked around, his eyes briefly met with Finnian's, and for a second he thought he'd be subjected to mockery and humiliation again. But Finnian only scowled and averted his gaze, demonstratively turning to continue his conversation with the pair of freshmen beside him.
Well, Hikaru thought, if everyone was ignoring him, maybe he could wander off for a little while.
The floor felt all wrong under his socked feet. It was made of polished wood, all smooth and slippery, putting him on edge as he walked, constantly afraid of tripping and falling. Hikaru had never liked wooden floors. He much preferred carpet or tatami mats, but he doubted he'd find either of those here.
Little by little his footsteps carried him through the house, past doors he didn't know the use of and spacious windows and walls full of family portraits. In the end he found himself at the bottom of a flight of stairs when something green caught his eye, and he paused to stand face to face with a very large green snake.
"Hello," he said automatically, already relaxing at the sight of the animal.
"You can speak to me!" The snake's head shot up, its tongue darting in and out of its mouth in rapid succession. "Finally, it was getting so boring in here. You have time to speak, don't you?"
Hikaru thought of his teammates back in the kitchen and living room, probably not even realizing that he had slipped out, and decided he did.
"Excellent." There was a smile in the snake's voice. "Sit down, young human. We have so much to talk about."
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