A black cat greeted them at the door, looking up at them with shining yellow eyes.

“Is this…” North gasped. “A familiar?”

“No, this is my cat,” Minerva bent down to pet it behind the ears. She was wearing her black dress, which she had started wearing every day to school. “Hewwo Cornelius. Awen’t you da cutest?” The cat immediately flopped over to expose its belly.

North frowned. As cute as the cat was, he came here for another reason. Almost a month had already passed since they met, but this was the first time Minerva invited him to her home. He was so excited he could hardly wait.

He was going to learn about magic.

It had taken this long due to the cautious nature of Minerva’s brother, Cyrus. North needed to earn his trust. It proved to be easier than expected, as it mostly involved joining Cyrus’s social network site, ‘Clock Link’.

The site looked professional, but there were fewer than thirty members, and most of them were just other kids of their school. Honestly, there was really no reason to use it, and with that name, he knew it was never going to catch on.

Of course, he wasn’t going to say that out loud.

“Well come on in, bro,” Cyrus sounded like a surfer. “There’s a lot to get into.”

Contrary to what people thought, most of the people in California didn’t speak with a ‘valley’ accent. Cyrus, despite his reputation, was one of the ones that did. Never judge a book by its cover and all that.

Was it normal for siblings to have different accents? He tried not to overthink it.

The three of them walked through the living room with Cornelius close behind. The furniture looked antique, and the whole house smelled like dust despite the fact that it looked relatively clean. Maybe old things just carried a smell with them.

They got to a hallway and went to the door at the end of it.

“This is Cyrus’s evil lair,” Minerva said, trying to make her voice sound scary.

“Enter,” Cyrus opened the door. “If you dare.” With the blinds drawn, it was almost impossible to see inside.

Cyrus flipped on the light switch to reveal a room that North could only describe as... painfully normal. It was clean. There was a bed, a computer desk, and a bookshelf. No chains or torture devices either. Pretty tame for an evil lair, assuming there wasn’t a secret passage somewhere.

He liked messy rooms. You could learn a lot about a person by looking at one. There was a story. Cyrus’s room was like a blank slate. Maybe its cleanliness was what made it evil.

“We’re still waiting on one more, but let’s get this thing going,” Cyrus said.

“Indeed,” Minerva waved him into the room. “She’s won’t miss anything she doesn’t already know anyway.”

North didn’t know who ‘she’ was, but he decided not to ask. Really, he just didn’t want to prolong their talk about magic any longer.

They went inside and closed the door behind them. Cyrus sat down at his computer and turned it on. Minerva sat down on his bed and motioned for North to do the same. The cat jumped up next to them.

Cyrus cracked his knuckles. “So I guess we should start from the beginning, huh?”

“Perhaps it would be best to start from that woman you talk to,” Minerva picked up her cat and set him on her lap.

“Why are you talking like that?” Cyrus asked.

“Because I’m a witch!” she yelled. “Witches should sound all mysterious, you dummy.”

“Right,” North sighed, looking over at his computer. It looked custom made, with an expensive gaming keyboard and mouse. North wondered how the valedictorian had any time for video games. Maybe overachieving wasn’t as difficult as people made it sound. Then again, maybe Cyrus was just a genius.

“Ever heard of the deep web, bro?” Cyrus asked, clicking on one of his desktop icons.

“The deep web?” the question caught North off guard. “I’ve heard of it.”

“Ever been?”

“No,” North admitted. He was interested in all the weird stories that he heard, but there were an equal number of stories having to do with people getting hacked. “My parents would probably kill me if going there messed up our computer.”

“Those are mostly stories man, supposed to scare you,” Cyrus said with the wisdom of a 70’s hippy. “Not that I’m saying you should go there unexperienced or anything, though.”

“We met someone,” Minerva smiled. “They were the one that taught us about the ancient ways of magic.”

“It was on a message board,” Cyrus scrolled through a folder filled with what looked like screenshots. “For occult stuff.”

“They said they were trying to teach as many people as possible before…” Minerva paused. “Someone found them.”

The hair on the back of North’s neck stood up. “Someone?”

“Someone who doesn’t want people to know about magic,” Cyrus said. “Apparently, she was taught by someone. That person’s already been dead for years. Killed. She said they made it look like an accident.”

This was amazing. Secret societies, dangerous information. This was exactly what he wanted in his life. All his hard work was finally paying off.

“Now that you know…” North started. “Aren’t you both in danger now too?”

“As long as we meet in secret, I believe we will remain unharmed,” Minerva said, trying to make her voice sound deeper.

“She said she’s been in contact with at least a hundred people. If those people tell their friends, who knows how many people know?” Cyrus said. “Plus I use a bunch of proxies. I think it’d be hard for them to track us down.”

“Alright,” North nodded. “So what happened?”

“We received a package,” Minerva placed her hands together in her lap.

North paused for a moment. “You told your address someone… that you met on the deep web occultic message board.”

“We didn’t tell them our address, silly,” Minerva gently slapped him on the arm. “We opened a P.O. Box.”

“We’re pretty hardcore, bro,” Cyrus said.

Somehow, North didn’t feel like their logic added up, but he was beyond caring. If he could learn to do magic, he didn’t mind knowing ‘too much’, spending his life on the run from assassins. In fact, that sounded pretty awesome.

Cyrus stood up and removed some books from his shelf. He reached inside the open space and took out a small cardboard box. “She sent us this.” He held it out.

North took it and placed it on his lap. It was extremely light. He opened the top of the box to find it filled with crumpled paper. A silver ring with a thick band sat at the top.

“You would be wise not to touch that,” Minerva said.

“Is this… magic?” North looked up at them, short of breath.

“It’s enchanted,” Cyrus picked up the ring and held it up for him. “There’s magic inside. Powerful stuff, bro.”

North took a closer look at the ring. There was a small spike protruding from it, and it looked sharp. It wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted to get punched by.

“What does it do?” he asked.

“You cut yourself with it, and some of her magic flows into you,” Minerva said. “It unlocks the mana inside your body.”

“Cut yourself?”

“That’s right, dude,” Cyrus said. “And it has to be on your tongue. No idea why though.”

“You both did that?” he asked.

“Of course,” Minerva said. “That’s how we got our powers. Cyrus isn’t very good with it though.”

“Yeah, Hannah’s a master,” Cyrus sighed. “I don’t have natural talent like she does.”

“Stop calling me that dumb name. Who’s ever heard of a magician named Hannah?”

Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Who’s ever, like, heard of a magician ever?”

There was no doubt Minerva was talented. She refused to tell him how it worked, but North could see her strength as plain as day. Over the last month, she improved significantly. He watched her practice, and it didn’t take long before she could make things float in the air. She could even make things like fire, water, and ice now.

If all it took was a prick on the tongue…

“I’ll do it,” North said.

“There’s… one more thing,” Cyrus said, his carefree tone suddenly changing to a much more serious one. “The woman said that it’s kind of risky.”

“Risky?”

“Some of people have… died… and stuff.”

North narrowed his eyes. “Oh.”

No doubt, that was about as risky as it got.

“Do you… not wanna do it?” Minerva asked.

“No, I do,” North smiled. “I don’t think I could live knowing I turned down a chance like this anyway. If I die, I die living the dream.”

“Very well,” Minerva poked him on the nose.

“Alright, bro, open up then,” Cyrus said.

“No!” Minerva jumped up. “I should be the one to do it. I said I’d teach him, after all.”

“This has nothing to do with teaching though.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Minerva grabbed the ring from him. “I wanna do it and that’s that.”

“My life’s in your hands,” North stuck out his tongue.

“Ready?” she asked, slipping the ring around her finger.

He replied as best he could. “Rehdeh!”

He felt a prick on his tongue. Immediately, a shock ran through his body, followed by a surge of pain. It was so quick and so intense, he almost fell off the side of the bed.

“You okay?” Cyrus asked.

“Yeah,” North swallowed some blood. “I think so.” Other than the initial shock, he didn’t really feel different. Now his tongue just hurt.

“Okay, tell him about the gate, tell him about the gate,” Minerva hopped up and down excitedly. “It was killing me having to keep it from you so long.”

“Gate?” North asked.

“You go there in your mind,” Cyrus sat back down in his chair and faced them. “Then you, like, send some mana through and get some magic out.”

“I go there… in my mind?”

“I know, totally trippy, right?”

“Cyrus hasn’t been there,” Minerva quickly added, putting her hands on her hips. “But I’ve been there lots of times.”

North leaned in. “What’s it like?”

“It is a mystical place, where those such as myself beckon the powers of the cosmos,” she threw her arms up into the air.

There was a silence.

“Basically, it’s just a big gate,” Cyrus said.

North swallowed more blood. “What’s on the other side?”

“Now that’s the big question,” Cyrus twirled around in his computer chair. “The easy answer... is that there’s a bunch of gnarly castles.”

“Castles?” North asked. “What’s the hard answer?”

“The hard answer,” Cyrus stopped spinning. “Is that it’s some kind of storage for ideas.”

“That’s how the woman explained it,” Minerva said. “She said it’s just her theory though. No one really knows.”

“She also said all that fire and water stuff is just the tip of the iceberg,” Cyrus grinned. “The real magic is far beyond the gate. Magic that breaks all the rules.”

North’s face lit up. “Have you… gone past it?”

“Well…” Minerva looked to Cyrus, and then back to him. “No.”

“Why the hell not?” he grabbed his hair in frustration.

“I have tried,” Minerva said. “It just… won’t open up.”

“The woman said that, as far as she knows, no one has ever gone inside,” Cyrus added. “It’s totally against magician rules to even try, apparently.”

“That’s stupid,” North crossed his arms. “If there’s really more magic out there, they should be doing everything they can to find it.”

Minerva and Cyrus exchanged a look, and then smiled.

“We think so too,” Minerva said.

Just then, they heard the doorbell ring.

“That must be Arlene,” Cyrus said. It wasn’t a name that North recognized. Cyrus got up and left the room.

“This is mind blowing,” he sighed.

Minerva sat back down next to him, looking down into her lap. “I’m glad you didn’t die.”

“Well that’s good to hear.”

“Yeah…” she inched a little closer, looking up at him.

“What… What are you doing?” North felt his chest tighten. Her face was just inches away from his.

“I-...”

Just then, they heard Cyrus’s voice coming down the hall. Minerva backed away from him again.

Seconds later, Cyrus came back through the door with a girl. She had dark brown hair in a ponytail, and wore a tracksuit.

“North, this is Arlene,” Cyrus pointed to her. “Arlene, this is North. We just used the ring.”

Cornelius, who had been relaxing on the bed, jumped down and stretched himself out. He walked over to smell the new guest.

“Hey,” Arlene’s face was expressionless, and her voice came out cold. “Nice to meet you.”

“Arlene graduated a couple years ago,” Cyrus went on. “Don’t worry, she’s totally cool. You can trust her for real, bro.”

“Uh, got it,” he said.

“She’s been to the gate a couple times too,” Cyrus gave a thumbs up. “That’s how I know Hannah isn’t lying to me about it.”

Minerva huffed.

Just as Cyrus turned to Arlene and started to talk about something, Minerva bent over and whispered into his ear.

“That’s Kaela’s sister,” she said.

"Kaela?"

"You know," Minerva grabbed his shoulder. “The little bitch that’s always hanging around Vi and Yune.”

“You haven’t told her how she’s been treating you?” North asked, keeping his voice down too.

“I can’t, it’s weird,” Minerva spoke a little faster. “Besides, I doubt she’d do anything about it.”

North stole a glance back over at Arlene. She was listening to Cyrus much more than she was talking with him, and she wasn’t much for nods or smiles. The strong silent type, for sure. For all he knew, she wouldn’t even care about her sister’s behavior.

“Anyway, don’t say anything, okay?” Minerva pulled back away.

Cyrus turned back toward him. “So why don’t we try and get North to the gate?”

“That would be awesome,” North said. “Where do I start?”

“Well… first we should probably…”

A realization struck North like a lightning bolt.

“Oh man, I just remembered I really need to go,” he cut Cyrus off.

The three of them exchanged glances.

“It’s cool, man,” Cyrus said. “We can always hang out again tomorrow.”

“Awesome,” North said.

“This is just a secret between us though, alright?” he added.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul,” he put his hand over his heart.

“Do you… really have to go?” Minerva asked.

“Sorry,” he said. “I promised a friend we’d meet up tonight. See you tomorrow, okay?”

“Oh y-yeah, sure,” Minerva stuttered. “I’ll… see you tomorrow.”

North grabbed his things and rushed out of the house.

As he hurried down the street he breathed a sigh of relief. He had almost forgotten.

Tonight would be his last chance to see Manami before she moved.

But after what happened when they were alone in the room, he couldn’t get Hannah off his mind.