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Chapter 71: The Test

Nathanial sat on the basement couch reading his grimoire. His father sat next to him, an arm over his shoulder, watching the national news. Garret glanced over to at him, "You okay?"

Nathanial noticed the time was six twenty-three, he sighed, nodding, "Y-yeah. I just wish I knew what to expect. They can't hold me, I can block their magic," He fingered his mother's amulet, it was deactivated at the time, but he felt better having it with him, "And Snow is with Liam, so backup is just a thought away." He fidgeted, "Maybe I should have had him come over here. Maybe it's a trick to get me out of contact with you guys for a few hours. Maybe Gordon set this up so I'm not here to protect Nick and Micah. So he can get Micah's blood and Beriatana can get her pet Demon Mage." He felt his muscles tensing up and his breathing became fast and shallow.

His nose was suddenly assailed by his father's scent as Garret pulled Nathanial's head into his chest. Garret shushed him and stroked his fur, "Shh, calm down, pup. The Fates don't need your help in thinking of new ways to torment you, they're doing a pretty good job as it is."

Nathanial chuckled, "Yeah, but they also gave me lots of stuff, too, like you and Geoff." His breathing levelled out and heart slowed, "Geoff, heh, maybe I'm more like him than I thought; we both seem to be able to work ourselves into a frenzy on a moments notice." He sat up, "She's here." He closed the grimoire and headed for the stairs, his father right behind, the doorbell chiming as his paws touched the first stair. He sent his mind out to the svelte jaguar standing on the front porch, *One moment, please.*

She gave a start and looked around, *O-of course.* She adjusted her dusty rose blazer and smoothed out her knee length skirt.

Nathanial smiled, "Well, at least you'll have something to enjoy at the door, Dad. She's almost as good looking as Ella."

"Damn!" Garret checked himself in the mirror then continued on as he smoothed out his fur, "I'll get the door, Son."

Nathanial chuckled and stood aside, clutching his grimoire to his chest, "Sure."

Garret opened the door, "Hello?"

Her eyes widened slightly, "Hello, you're Mr. Garret Marks? I'm Marcia Banks, I'm here to retrieve Nathanial Marks." She was half a head shorter than Garret was and far more slender, making them look like a stereotypical storybook couple. Nathanial corrected himself, they would if they weren't different species. Cats and dogs never got together in stories, movies, or even TV shows. Not even commercials.

Garret nodded, "Of course, please, come in." He stepped aside and took her paw as he ushered her in, "I'd like to talk to you for a moment. I was under the impression this was going to happen in November."

He continued to usher her down the hall as he talked, Nathanial got the coffee going. She looked around as she walked, impressed, but Nathanial noticed her eyes kept travelling over Garret as they went. He was in jeans, again, wearing a tight fitting golden-brown t-shirt that showed off his physique as well as making his markings look brighter and more red. Her eyes travelled from his belt up to his face, her voice carried a trace of a purr, "There was just so many things about this that interested me, and new things keep showing up that attract me to the case."

Garret smiled politely, "Indeed, I have to say I agree." He took her paw again as he sat her down in the love seat and sat beside her. Nathanial's lips twitched into a smile, noting that he still held her paw. "There's a lot about his case that I find... exceptionally attractive." He lifted her paw to his lips and kissed it. She turned her head slightly and blushed, giggling as her purr became more pronounced. Nathanial slipped into the kitchen and went to pour the coffee, but changed his mind. He frowned for a moment, then switched to a smile as he found the open bottle of white wine. He poured a small amount of wine into two glasses, put slices of several types of cheese and some crackers on a plate, and levitated them out to the coffee table as he sat down at the counter. He opened his grimoire and listened to his father, "Now, Ms. Banks, I was under the impression you were sending someone to retrieve Nathanial, not that you'd be coming out yourself. I'm glad you changed the plans, but it raises my curiosity." He released her paw as he leaned over, picked up the wine glasses, and gave her one.

"I'm glad I came, too. It's after hours and our usual retriever wasn't able to put in the overtime," She took a sip of the wine, her purr deepening as she put her free paw on Garret's knee, "I saw the notes Agent Ella's team wrote on your son, and I knew I just had to see this for myself. Is it true he has a new grimoire?"

"Yes, he does. So, what does this testing entail? I've never undergone testing at the National Headquarters, myself, just the standard testing at the provincial office. Will it take too long? It's a school night."

She laughed, "Oh, no, not too long... usually. It seems your son is a unique case, so the tests may take a bit longer than usual, but this is running late for everyone. We'll probably end up scheduling several tests, if we need to, rather than staying past seven. Does Mrs. Marks worry if he's out after a certain time?"

Garret lowered his head, his voice was soft and sorrowful, "No. No, she doesn't. She... doesn't worry about anything, anymore."

She put her wine down and moved her left paw away from his leg, her purrs falling silent, "I'm sorry."

He picked her paw up, "It's... all right, I'm coming to terms with it." He rubbed the back of her paw with his thumb, and she purred slightly, "It's brought us closer together, my sons and I, which I'm grateful for." Nathanial put a little more wine in their glasses, leaving the bottle in an unobtrusive spot on the table, and put some music on in the background. Garret's ear twitched, but Ms. Banks didn't seem to notice, though her purrs became a little louder. "If I remember correctly, I was asked to perform some spells off several lists of spells, in increasing difficulty. Will his test be similar?"

She lifted her glass, again, and took a small sip. When she put her glass down she rested her paw on his mid thigh, "We'll start there, but we may become more... active," Her paw slid up slightly, "As things progress." Nathanial's eyes widened in surprise. Garret's face showed a slight smile, but Nathanial could see his tail wagging and hear the faint tapping of it on the back of the love seat.

"Then I may see more of you, then?" He brushed her cheek with the back of his finger, then traced the base of her ear, subtly leaning in.

She tilted her head toward his paw, eyes partially closed, "As long as I see more of you, you can guarantee it." Nathanial moved his mind away and took his grimoire downstairs, wondering if he'd actually get any testing tonight.

He just reached the bottom of the stairs when Garret called out, "Ready to go, Nathanial?" He sounded a little cross.

"Uh, yeah?" He turned around and walked back up, Marcia was putting a cell phone back in her purse. "Your co-workers were getting impatient, eh?" He said sympathetically as he walked into the sitting room.

Her tail flicked in annoyance, "Yes." She moderated her voice, "You're Nathanial? It's a pleasure to meet you after reading so much about you." Her eyes darted to the grimoire, "What is that? I don't recognise the material at all!"

She reached for it in excitement, but Nathanial moved it away, "I think they've waited for me pretty long, Ms. Banks. The sooner we go, the sooner you can bring me back. I'm sure Dad is pretty tired and doesn't want to wait up too long for us."

She blushed slightly and glanced over at Garret, purring, again, "You're right, I'm sorry." Garret stood and kissed her paw. She smiled and continued, "I'll have your son back, safe and sound, before you know it."

"I look forward to his safe return," Garret let her paw go with a smile, and she stepped over to Nathanial. She put her paw on his shoulder and cast a quick spell. He paid attention, but she cast it fast enough that he missed a few snippets of it.

He felt himself compress, somehow, and zip across a large amount of land to appear in a non-descript office. A dozen cubicles squatted behind him in the dim lights, surrounded by nine offices. The one in front of them had her name on it, and inside it was another Mage, an older Hyena woman. She wore a full black dress, her left ear had a half dozen piercing, and her mane was done up in short, beaded, braids. She had a number of bracelets on each arm, too. She looked angry. Marcia took a deep breath and opened the door, "I'm so sorry, Zelda. Mr. Marks had a lot of questions he wanted answered before he'd let me take Nathanial. Here he is, though. Nathanial Marks, this is Zelda Kyreakakos. Zelda, this is Nathanial."

She glanced at him then fixed Marcia with an evil glare, "We'll talk of this later, Marcia." She had an accent Nathanial couldn't place. She stood, matching Nathanial's height, and nodded, "Let's begin. Follow me to the testing room."

Marcia held her paws out, "The grimoire, first, Nathanial. You can't take it into the testing room."

Nathanial hugged it to his chest, but the essence of the book seemed to reassure him. He put it down on the desk, "Um, please, be careful with it. It's... precious to me." Zelda's eyes widened as she stared at it.

Marcia smiled reassuringly, but her eyes kept flicking back to the book. Her purr was audible as she said, "Of course. There is no way I'd risk damaging something like this. It's... incredible!" She touched her paws to the pliable skin, then snatched them back, "Ow!" The pads of her paws were cracked and began bleeding. "What happened?"

Nathanial took her paws in his, and examined the damage. He 'tsked' and put his paw on the grimoire, *Her energy, please.* He felt her energy flow into him, *Thanks. She's allowed to examine you, here, just, um, don't let her take you out of the room.* He let her energy flow back into her paws, the wounds healed over. The Mages eyes widened, again, they looked at each other then back to Nathanial. He blushed and lowered his head, letting her paws go, "The, um, grimoire thought you were a threat. It kinda drained some of your energy. I gave it back to you. I told it you can look at it, but not to let you take it out of the room."

Marcia frowned, "It's uncommon for a grimoire to accept a Mage as it's master like that, but not really rare. What do you mean it 'drained' me, though?"

"What I said, it stole some of your life energy. Elemental Darkness magic." The Mages looked at each other, again.

Zelda spoke, "What is it made out of? I've never seen or heard of anything like this."

"Ms. Banks told me not to say. I think she wanted to figure it out herself." Nathanial smiled, unable to keep a teasing tone out of his voice.

"Call me Marcia, please," She said, "I... expected a new, but fairly standard, grimoire. What is it?"

"A shadow mastiff." Their expressions were blank, "An entity from the Elemental Plane of Darkness. Recently discovered, last month, actually." He expected their eyes to widen, for them to look at each other, then at the grimoire. He wasn't disappointed.

Zelda reached toward it, "May I?" He nodded, and she gently stroked the pelt, "It's so soft." She lightly pinched the skin, "And it stretches. It's not really fur, but it feels..." She shook her head, "Mastiff? It's a canine? Like a type of Fur, or a feral?"

"Feral, but sentient. I think Agent Jay wrote a report on it, and I think he's writing a paper, too. He had two to examine; if you want more information you'll have to talk to him. I'm here to be tested, if you please. It's a school night."

Zelda nodded, "Yes, of course."

She walked out of the room, but Marcia hesitated, "I can't take it out of the room? But, I..." She sighed and rubbed the grimoire longingly, before sitting down and opening the book. Her jaw dropped, but Zelda was already around the corner. Nathanial trotted to catch up.

Zelda led him into a larger room, he could feel a dampening effect around the room from some sort of ward. His initial guess to its purpose was to block communication from the outside as well as to prevent structural damage. No cheating or blowing up the place, smart. The room was empty except for a chair, a table, and a small, enclosed, office in one corner. The room was about forty feet by forty feet (twelve metres) and twenty feet (six metres) high. He frowned, the wards were also making it hard for him to see out. He stopped and studied them for a bit until he felt Zelda poke him, "Are you all right, child?"

He jumped, "Um, yes. I was just distracted for a moment." There was another magic, a set of spells designed to view and record the magic used by the people in the room. Its source was the office in the corner of the room. "So, you put the list of spells I'm to choose from on the table, I select the ones I want to try, and you record my attempts in the office over there?"

She nodded, "You haven't done this before, from what our records say. Marcia explained it?"

"Dad said what his was like. Briefly. How am I supposed to do this without my grimoire? What if I don't know any of the spells on the list?"

She just smiled, "Try. This is just part one, and all of the spells are standard ones that can be taught to any Mage. There's a lot of variety between grimoire and Mage families, so we give you a big list and let you choose, rather than expect everyone to know the entire basic spell list." She put a small binder on the table and a pen on top of the binder, "Start looking through the first tier, select ten spells, then cast them in order. Wait until you hear a chime between each spell. Once you cast the last one, go to the next list."

He nodded, part of his mind still picking through the wards on the room. She began walking to the office and he looked at the binder, it was enchanted to send the list selected to the office and to keep it from being destroyed. The pen was also designed to be hard to destroy, but it was able to record the heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature of the user. Interesting. He studied it, forgetting about the wards and the test for a minute. "I'm sure the pen isn't that unusual, child. I'm very late for supper, so please get started," Zelda's voice echoed from the office. She sounded a little impatient. He glanced down the list, quickly checking off some spells. Mage Light, Minor Telekinesis, and Summon Fog were obvious choices. He followed with Mind Ward, but hesitated over Summon/Unsummon. He still had the key to the cabinet as his target. He shrugged, summoned the key, and put it in his pocket. Zelda's voice came out again, "Please refrain from using magic until you select your spells. That looked like Summon/Unsummon, but it was... different. What was it?"

"Summon/Unsummon. I had an active one already, so I summoned the object tied to it to me to make sure I wouldn't lose it." He checked off Telepathy, that made six. Ah! Chill! Seven.

Zelda sounded hesitant, "It was... in Ottawa? Correct? Not your home in Halifax?"

He shrugged, confused, "No, it was in Halifax. In my basem...ent." He slowed down, realizing they may know the basement was warded, then it clicked that she sounded almost concerned at the idea that he may have summoned something from Halifax.

There was silence in the office. He glanced over, she was sitting, stunned, behind the reflective glass. She was staring at the notes displayed on her side of the glass. He looked them over, fascinated. He saw the points where he'd subconsciously altered the spell to make it pull the key out of the warded cabinet and basement, then across distances the spell wasn't supposed to traverse. The core of the spell was almost lost under all the additions, but the magic of the windows still highlighted it and displayed its name, 'Cool!' He looked around for paper, but could only see the test paper. He was about to ask Snow to get some, but stopped himself. He just focused on trying to memorize it. Zelda was starting to rouse, so he got the pen to check off three more spells: Dry, Fire Ward, and Weaken. There was a short bell sound, so Nathanial looked at the top one in the list: Chill. A glass of lukewarm water appeared on the desk so he shot it with the spell and turned it to ice. Done. He smiled, pleased with himself. A chime sounded, the glass vanished and a wet towel replaced it. He cast Drying, it was one he still needed to do the full spell for, and the towel dried off. The chime sounded, the towel vanished and a small, lit, brazier appeared on the floor. A block of wood appeared on the table. He cast fire ward on it, he had a little trouble since he hadn't practiced it much, but he was satisfied with it and tossed the wood into the brazier. The bell chimed and he made a small swarm of 'firefly' lights like he did on his birthday, he noticed Zelda looked surprised, again, but the bell chimed before he looked at the window. He activated his Mind Ward spell, it was one he used very often, even if it wasn't needed. Chime. A feather appeared, he lifted it with his mind. Chime. He filled the room with fog. Chime. A box and a key. He set the box as the destination, the key as the object, then sent the key to the box and retrieved it.

"One moment. We normally have a person with you while administering the test, Marcia is on her way."

Nathanial was so wrapped up in the test he nearly forgot about her. He looked at the wards again, and found the patterns to it just as Marcia walked in. His grimoire was still on the desk, open, with a notepad full of scrawled notes beside it. He frowned as he read them, they seemed pretty straightforward, but it still seemed weird to be writing notes about a grimoire like that. They started out with measurements of the book, the quality of the skin, how the book was bound, and so on. Later it began discussing the ink, the writing style, size of the print, and on, and on, and on. She was almost obsessive in the details.

Marcia cleared her throat, "The bell chimed."

Nathanial jumped, "Oh, right. Sorry." Getting through that ward took more attention than he thought. *Testing, testing, one, two, three.* She nodded and smiled encouragingly as she walked toward the exit. The bell chimed and a feral rat appeared in a box. She wore a harness which was tied to the wall of the box. She sat up on her haunches and her whiskers twitched as she sniffed the air. Her soft, grey, fur was sleek and shiny, in most places, but it looked like she saw a fair amount of abuse. She squeaked up at him and he felt his heart melt, "Aww... you're so cute!" He reached in a rubbed her head. He noticed magic on the box and harness but didn't pay it much attention; every object was enchanted so far to let them be summoned and returned.

Zelda's voice was dry, "That's the target for your spell, not a pet. Shoot it."

He looked down at the rat, she looked up at him and grabbed his finger with her forepaws. She squeaked at him again. "I-I can't. She's not my enemy, she's just a poor little animal. I can't hurt her. It just seems wrong."

She sighed, her breath made the microphone crackle, "You picked the spell. How did you think it'd be tested? It has to be cast on a living target, and we aren't about to have Mages, or even Furs, as targets."

"Can I change my choice?"

"No."

"Then I forfeit."

She sighed, again, "It's Weaken, child, not Death In Unspeakable Ways. She... it will be tired for a half hour and then be fine, again. I'll give her, it, some corn as a treat, okay?"

He sighed and looked down at the rat, "Would you like some corn? Yes? Don't worry, I'll make this as weak as possible. I mean as low powered." She dropped to all four paws and curled up, shivering in the corner. Nathanial felt his eyes watering, "Ohh... I can't!"

"Do it! Now!"

He whirled and glared at the office, "No! I won't!"

The door slammed open and she stomped out of the office, bracelet's jangling. "You learned the spell, you chose the spell, you'll cast the spell!"

"Fine!" He pointed at her and the dark beam struck her in the chest. She fell to the ground, completely limp. Nathanial instantly regretted it, and ran over, worried he killed her.

Her voice was faint, but wry, "I meant at the rat, child. It seems you're very good at the spell, I can't move at all." She struggled to sigh, then cackled weakly, "This probably would've killed it, if the harness wasn't on."

Nathanial knelt beside her, "I'm sorry. I just... reacted, you were making me a little angry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

She twitched her sandy-brown paw toward his, he picked it up and held it, "The feeling was mutual. We're supposed to pass over spells like that when the subject, you, displays empathy and resists harming an animal despite orders. The harness the animal wears protects them from hostile magic. We aren't supposed to come charging out yelling at children." He called on some Light energy and tried to weave it into a counter spell to the Weaken spell. He cast it on her, without word or gesture, and she sat up, "Strengthen? No, not quite." She climbed to her feet and walked back into the office. The window was flashing red, she tapped the window in a few spots, and it split into two images. The left was the Weaken spell, fairly standard, except it showed far more power to it, and had an unusual marker in some places. Probably the influence of Snow or the Plane of Darkness. The second one was the mirror image, complete with an opposite marker. "What is this?" Nathanial didn't think it was directed at him. He walked back to the desk and resumed studying the pen as he kept an eye an her. She hit a few 'buttons' on the window and called Marcia, "Marcia, I need you in here, now. I... we... we may need to call Jean-Paul."

Nathanial's ears perked as he watched Marcia drop her pen and come tearing out of her office. He noticed his heart rate picking up so he put the pen down, but it still seemed to be registering his vital signs. He stepped back a pace at a time until he was out of range. 'Neat!' Marcia ran past him and joined Zelda in the office. Nathanial mostly ignored the pen, he'd decided to focus on eavesdropping, instead.

"What is it, Zelda?" Marcia panted as she closed the door behind her. Zelda just pointed at the two spells displayed on the window. Marcia frowned, "That's a Weaken spell, altered and insanely powerful, to be sure, but still recognizable. Nothing we weren't expecting after Agent Ella's report. But what is that? It's... a mirror image? The computer couldn't find anything resembling a match?" She tapped a few spots on the window and an image of Nathanial sitting beside Zelda appeared, talking. It showed him close his eyes for a second, his fur seemed to fluff out slightly and reflect the overhead lights a bit more. Then the computer registered magic and Zelda spoke and sat up. The clip ended. "No words, no gestures, no real indication he cast a spell." Marcia sounded confused. "Every spell in his grimoire, that I've seen, is a registered spell; there isn't anything to explain what's been reported."

Zelda looked a little spooked, "Should we call Jean-Paul?"

Marcia's voice was dry and her expression flat, "And what would that accomplish? He'll just say," She lowered her voice a few octaves and sounded bored and slow, "Did you file a report? Send me an e-mail and I'll get around to it according to the proper procedures." Her voice returned to normal, "You can't believe what I had to go through to get him to let me stay after hours or pay you overtime for this." She sounded like she was getting very agitated as she launched into a tirade on her boss, "One person for two hours of overtime and I had to fill out three pages of paperwork, after fighting with him for an hour and showing him all the reports pertaining to Nathanial. There's a lot of reports, Agent Arrie personally filled twenty. You saw the fight with those Inquisitors!" Zelda shuddered. Nathanial frowned, a little annoyed that he couldn't remember it at all, yet a video of it was being passed around like this. "Jean-Paul saw it and only then gave me permission! Reluctantly! He wouldn't even let me get a full testing team in, or bump a routine test during normal hours." Marcia was growling and her tail was lashing the air behind her.

Zelda cackled and patted her arm, "Ne, Ne, Marcia. I know Jean-Paul." Nathanial had no idea what 'ne' meant, but Zelda was obviously trying to calm the jaguar down. "File your reports, I'll log this. Will you be taking him home, or am I starting the second round?"

Marcia calmed down a little, but her tail was still going, "I'll get his grimoire... with permission, then start the reports while you get going on the second round." She shuddered, "I'm afraid what he'll do to the higher level spells." Nathanial blushed, he didn't really know any more spells than he already cast. He looked at a lot, but he hadn't really studied them yet. He began levitating his grimoire over.

Marcia walked out of the office and came over to him, "I need to bring your grimoire here while you start the second part." Nathanial opened the door and brought his grimoire in, Marcia continued, "Can you tell it to..." She saw the grimoire, "Never... mind. How...?"

Zelda's voice called out over the microphone, "Marcia?" She sounded a little scared and uncertain. Nathanial held his grimoire to his chest and looked at the window as Marcia ran back into the office. The window was pulsing red, it showed a spell name 'Gravitational Variance', but it had a few symbols after it that Nathanial didn't recognize. The spell diagram had a few key sections highlighted as components of the named spell, but the rest was purely his own, subconscious, creation. Marcia looked at it and sat down in an empty chair with a thump. They both stared at the window.

Nathanial waited a minute, but they didn't move, so he opened his book, at random, and looked at the spell as he trotted over. The spell was Binding Tentacles; Nathanial smiled slightly as he thought of Nick. He began reviewing it, the spell seemed somewhat complicated, but quite easy to learn. It was 'clicking' the same way Summon Fog did. He knocked on the door frame, "Hi." He didn't get a response. He walked in, "Um, hello?" He hesitantly reached out and tapped Zelda on the shoulder, "Ms. Keer... uh, Ms. Kar... Zelda, ma'am?"

Her eyes focused again and she turned to look at him. She gave a small shriek and scrambled out of her seat, away from him. She stopped, and put her paw on her chest as she panted, "Child! Nathanial, you scared me." Marcia seemed to come to when Zelda shrieked, and sat there shaking her head. Zelda leaned on the counter beneath the window, "You aren't supposed to be in here, what do you want?"

"You've been in here a long time. Did I do something wrong?"

Marcia sighed, "No. Of course not, Nathanial, just... unexpected. When you levitate things, what spell are you using?"

"Um, Minor Telekinesis. It's the only spell like that I know." He stopped himself from rolling his eyes as the two women looked at each other with wide eyes, then the window, then back at him. "I know the window says something else, but I just do it, I don't notice anything different about it. What did you see when I lifted the feather in the test?"

Zelda sounded tired, "Minor Telekinesis. There wasn't anything odd about it." She looked at the jaguar, "I don't know if I can take the next part of the test, I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. In all my years..." She shook her head.

Nathanial ducked his head, "Well, I don't know any more spells, really. Just Charm, which I'm not good at, Ghost Sound, also bad at, and Binding Tentacles which I just learned now and never cast before."

Marcia frowned, "Two basic spells and... I don't know the last one." She tapped the window, "Binding Tentacles." The spell appeared on the screen, and Marcia and Zelda began reading through it, "A conjuration spell. Intermediate to advanced. Minor Dark aligned. You just learned it, but haven't cast it yet? When is 'just learned'?"

"Um, now. After I brought my grimoire into the room, when you came in here to see how I brought it in." He rolled his eyes; he just couldn't help it when they looked at each other with surprised expressions then looked back at him.

Zelda sighed, "Very well. Bring the grimoire in here, then go back out and wait for the chime. I guess we're skipping to part four." He levitated the book into the room, the window began pulsing red, again, but it didn't show the same diagram, exactly. Zelda looked it over, "Why is it different this time?"

Nathanial shrugged, "Probably because I didn't have to work around the wards on the testing room." He cut them off before they could react, "I know, your surprised, both of you. You don't have to exchange glances or anything. Once I can analyze a ward, I subconsciously alter my spells to work around them. I don't know how, so don't ask."

Marcia sounded hesitant, "You analyzed the spell on... the room?"

Zelda's tone matched Marcia's, "So when you were zoning out earlier, when you walked in the room, looking at the pen...?"

Nathanial shrugged, a little nervous and uncomfortable, "The pen has neat enchantments on it. Why do you need to keep track of the test subjects' heart rate and stuff?"

Zelda stared in disbelief, "T-to see how they react to the stress of the test? You could tell what the spells did? You could see them?"

Marcia shook her head, "The reports said you could, but..." She put her elbow on the arm of her chair and put her forehead on her paw, "I wasn't sure if I believed them. What are you?"

"A Mage?" He knew he didn't sound certain, he wasn't, not anymore. Too many people had expressed their doubts. He pushed his own doubts aside, "I'm a Mage. My father is a Mage, my mother was a Fur. My father's parents are both Mages, my mother's are both Furs." Okay, so his grandparents were Demon Mages, but they were genetically Mages. He guessed. He frowned, Garret was a Demon Mage, both of his parents were. Probably one of Wallace's parents were, if not both. Hells, he probably had several generations of Demon Mages as ancestors on both sides of his father's family. Was he still a Mage? Or did all that demonic influence Taint him, somehow? No, Liam would know if he was. He was a Mage, that's all there was to it.

Zelda looked at him, cautious and concerned, "What now?"

He shrugged, "Nothing, just realizing how little I know about my heritage. I met my grandparents, on both sides, for the first time that I can remember this month. I spoke to my mother's parents for only a few minutes, and will probably never talk to them again. I really know nothing about where I come from, that way."

Zelda laughed, hyenas really sounded psychotic even when they were amused, "I can't understand that. My family is Greek and my father made sure I knew everything there was to know about my heritage and ancestry before I left home."

Nathanial ducked his head, "I'd barely talked to my father before this month, he was always busy with work. When Mom... when she died, he kinda realized how... fragile things are."

Marcia froze, "This month? September, I hope, but still. His wife, your mother, has been dead for only a month?"

Nathanial hastened to reassure her, "They were barely married for years before that, they just didn't want to go through a divorce. They had separate rooms for, uh, five years, I think? And they only spoke for more than a minute or two a few times a month. It... was, they weren't happy together, she was really..." He shook his head as he trailed off.

Zelda put her paw on his shoulder, "Child, did he hit you or your mother? Was he hurting you?"

Nathanial smiled ruefully, "No, he was never around to. She was..." He drew in a deep breath, "So, what does part four of the test entail?"

They exchanged glances. Gods, that was annoying. Marcia nodded, "Very well. In part four you pick an intermediate spell from the book, study it for ten minutes, and then try to cast it. You must surrender your grimoire for the actual casting. Part five involves casting from the grimoire."

Zelda began setting up the test, "Go, child, stand by the table."

"I only studied the spell for two minutes, maybe less." He said, pausing by the door.

Marcia's voice was wry, "You said you know it. We'll make a note of the time, though."

Nathanial trotted out to the table and the bell chimed. He focused, drawing in Darkness since they said it was a Dark aligned conjuration spell. He felt the spell piece together and he released it. The room shuddered and the lights dimmed. Large tentacles, twelve feet (three and a half metres) long, grew out of the ceiling and floor around the entire room. They had rows of suction cups, with barbed claws in the middle, along the one side of the writhing, shadowy, flesh. He could hear them waving around, blindly looking for targets. He could see three of the closest ones reaching for him as a dozen or so probed the office looking for weak points. 'Okay. Maybe Nick wouldn't like this spell.'