Mina mused on her situation as she brushed her teeth. She was currently attending a hidden magic school less than a week after she came into existence, at least from her perspective. It was a bit surreal.

The school was much less fantastic than Hogwarts. The architecture was a bit weird and they were taught magic, but there were lots of mundane things too. Three quarters of the lessons focused on mundane topics. Yesterday, they had been taught about Hinduism, probability, and the three act structure in stories. It was obvious that they intended for the graduating students to be able to function in normal society.

The magic lessons largely focused on individual exercises. Mina concluded meditation was boring no matter how helpful it might be. She had been told that they would have training alone with an instructor later, but older students got priority over them.

Today was Saturday, and there were no lessons. Groups of students were allowed to leave for shopping and leisure. Each group had an adult guardian. Mina was not allowed to join this time, but why would she? A relaxing day with her new friends sounded great.

She met Ulan, Nico and Kiri in the cantina for breakfast. Elsa and Angelica had left early to join the shopping expedition. Kat and the bullies were nowhere to be seen, for which she was grateful.

At least it seemed like they were no longer pushing the baby narrative as hard. Despite everything, she wasn’t completely immune to their attempts. She just found it annoying rather than embarrassing. The pictures that were supposed to be her in a diaper were so obviously fake it was crossing into absurdity, and still people made fun of her and laughed.

The episode with the boys had shaken her a fair bit. They had thankfully only been interested in teasing her, nothing more. Well, except that their version of teasing included pushing her back and forth between them, as if she was a beach ball. It had revealed how vulnerable she really was. It was scary being manhandled by boys much stronger than herself. If they wanted to really hurt her, there was nothing she could have done about it.

She had thought about it afterwards, and realized the incident was a crack in Kat’s facade. The narrative she tried to push was that she was the undisputed queen of the school. But these boys were just interested in teasing her for their own amusement, and only as much as they could get away with. They were not willing to stick their head out for Kat's sake.

Right now she had something else on her mind.

"Ulan, if you don't mind, I have a question about your heritage," she asked as they were heading outside after the meal.

"Yes, have you changed your mind?" Ulani practically lit up.

"No, your heritage, not mine," Mina clarified, “My knowledge of African cultures is rather limited. Even so, I believe your mix of clothes and jewelry are from widely different parts of Africa. Or am I mistaken?”

They stepped out into the cloudy morning towards one of the easily climbable trees with a lot of low branches.

“Well, if you have to know, I don’t exactly know where in Africa my ancestors lived,” Ulani admitted, “so I just pick cool stuff from various places. I’m probably related to most of them, right?”

“Eh… that’s rather unlikely,” Mina countered, “You do know that Africa is huge, right? It’s bigger than the US, Europe and India combined, with room to spare. By bunching it all together, you are repeating the same sin many white people commit; thinking of Africa like one country. In truth, there are more than fifty countries, and there would probably be a lot more if the Europeans hadn’t divided Africa in such a stupid way.”

Ulan looked a bit taken back. “Are you sure?” Mina nodded. “Maybe… I should take a trip to the library and read a bit. I mean, no one has really taught me this.”

“I believe you,” Mina sighed, “What they teach in school is almost all Europe and America. Everything else is an afterthought.”

“Naw, wrong,” Nico protested, “Basically only the US. The rest of America? Who cares? Wait, I do! I wanna learn about all the cool shit that happened south of the American border. All we learn about that is 'drugs, drugs, drugs, don't do drugs, dodelidoo.'”

He sounded frustrated. Kiri nodded in agreement, possibly due to the lack of representation regarding her own people. Martin hadn't even been aware of the existence of the Maori until his daughters caught interest in the Disney movie.

"Hey, I have an idea," Ulan said while hanging from a branch, "How about we make a history club? Then we can research interesting stuff and share the cool parts with..."

Mina got distracted midway through Ulani's speech. There was a weird buzzing sound somewhere, and it wasn't an insect. She looked around to see if there was a gardener working nearby. No, the sound originated from above. She looked up. A helicopter? No, a drone.

"...think, Mina?" Ulan finished his monologue.

"Eh, sorry, I got distracted. Are drones common here?" She pointed.

Everyone looked up. The drone was getting closer. She glanced around. Other people were looking and pointing upwards, but not at the drone. She followed their fingers. Another drone? No, three? Four!

"What are those?" Kiri asked.

"Drones," Mina repeated.

"Like those they use to bomb foreign countries?" Nico asked.

"Wait, is this your first time seeing drones?" Mina was getting a bad feeling.

All of them nodded. Mina could feel the stress building up. If they didn't use drones in the academy, that meant all the drones came from outside. Who would come here and use drones for reconnaissance? Someone looking for something or someone.

"They are looking for me," she concluded.

"Who are looking for you?" Nico asked.

"The Consortium."

"Seriously?"

She tried to keep her breath steady, despite her rapidly beating heart. So unlucky that she decided to go outside right when they came. On the other hand, she got some advance warning. The others were just confusedly looking at her. She needed a plan right now.

“Listen, I have to hide. Will you help me out?” she practically begged them.

“Sure.” “Yes.” “Of course.”

They all agreed without any further questions. It warmed her heart to hear that much devotion from someone she had only known for two days.

“I can’t run, it’ll make me too obvious. Can we all get up and go as a group? I need to find a place to hide that doesn’t trap me in a corner.”

They murmured some suggestions. The cantina, the dormitories, the library…

“The maze,” Kiri suggested.

It wasn’t the worst suggestion. While it was open to the sky, it was badly lit. If she could find a place to hide under the hedge, it would be really difficult to find her using the drones.

They got up and started walking together. Mina explained her plan; when they walked past the maze, she would dodge into it, and the rest of them would keep walking and enter one of the treehouses.

Mere moments after they started walking, one of the drones moved straight towards them. Mina wanted to curse. They would obviously be noticed when they were the only group moving when everyone else was still staring and using their phones to take pictures. This plan was rapidly falling apart. Then again, stopping and waiting would be even worse.

The distance to the maze was gradually reduced. Too slowly. Mina wanted nothing more than to run and hide. Was this how Martin had felt when the gunmen started firing? At least she hadn’t been shot yet. Great. Now she started thinking about her inevitable end.

They finally reached one of the entrances to the maze. “Ready, Mina?” Ulan asked. He looked confused, somehow looking past Mina. There was no time to think about it.

Mina darted into the maze and hugged the hedge. She crept further along the hedge. There was no specific destination, just as far in she could get. She quickly realized her biggest mistake; her makeshift plan lacked any goal, outside of just waiting out the attackers and possibly praying for a miracle.

Her mind raced as she walked half-crouched for some time. A minute? Five?

Voices. Adult voices. Somewhere close. She couldn’t wait for the perfect place, she had to hide right now. A nearby dead end would have to do. The bottom of the hedge was all withered because of the lack of sun. The dead branches and short distance between each individual bush still made it pretty much impossible to squeeze under the hedge, as had been her original plan. She found the best place she could, crouching on the ground and squeezing into a corner in a dead end. This would probably be a dead end in more ways than one.

Humans had evolved to be super good at noticing faces, so she made sure to stick her face into the hedge. The branches hurt her face. The cold ground was gradually sapping her warmth. She had no choice but to endure.

Her ears strained to pick up the nearby sounds. Most of all, she heard the rapid beating of her heart. She also heard the feet stomping around. Not only heard, she could even feel the vibrations through the ground. They were that close.

Then, someone entered the dead end. She was certain of it. This was her end.

Something was strange, though. She picked up some feelings that didn’t match what happened. There was a lack of certainty or focus. She couldn’t put the exact feelings into words.

And then, just as suddenly, the person left again. That was strange. Did they somehow fail to spot her? Well, she had the advantage of dark skin and black hair as well as somewhat muted colors on her clothes, so maybe they had failed to spot her?

The buzzing of one or more drones passed above. Mina heard one fly really close. Wait, it stopped. Now it was hovering somewhere right above her. No fair, drones were practically cheating.

More steps. Another pair of feet entered the dead end. They stopped. Mina picked up more confusing feelings. A voice spoke softly. Male. The words were impossible to catch. If there were no one else nearby, he probably spoke into a radio or something.

The man left again. This was just plain weird. They had failed to spot her twice. Maybe someone at the academy was using magic to conceal her or something? Well, she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The drone hovering above still worried her. Her legs had fallen asleep, and she was getting awfully cold. Also, she wanted so badly to scratch an itch. She ignored all of it. There was no way she would move an inch until she knew it was safe. Or she was doomed.

More tense minutes followed. There was at least one other person who entered the dead end. She heard cursing in a voice she half-recognized. Frustration. He, too, left again.

Another pair of feet entered the dead end. Unlike the others, they walked very deliberately with no hint of hurry. She could feel his focus, his strong intent. The feet stopped close. Less than an arm’s reach away. They stood still. Mina could scarcely breathe, she was so afraid. Then something touched her, probingly.

“Magnificent,” a male voice practically boomed, along with a strong sense of being impressed.

More feet entered the dead end. “There,” the male voice announced.

Another pair of feet closed in. “Are you su…” The female voice stopped itself just as something touched Mina. “... wow. Freaky.” The voice was somehow familiar, too.

“It’s okay, you can stop hiding now,” the voice continued, “We are not going to hurt you.” Strangely, it sounded sincere.

Regardless, the game was up. Playing dead would not amount to anything, regardless of their intentions. She tried, and failed, to stand up. Her legs were just too cramped to function. She managed to at least sit up and look around her. Four people were standing in front of her. The feelings were a mix of confusion and surprise. She recognized three of them; they were the same agents that had talked to her on the farm.

“If you are not going to hurt me, why are you chasing me?” she asked.

“To recruit you,” came the answer from the man with the sharp features, the one called Agent Solitaire.