Late afternoon had shifted to dusk, with the moon hanging precariously over the large gathering James stood aside of, watching. He was puffed, out of breath from his frantic jog from Sandringham station. It had been months since his last expedition and the artistic lifestyle had led to waning fitness levels. He hoped that wouldn’t be an issue tonight.

The crowd loitered outside of a town-hall. Chanting could be heard from the front of the audience, their shouts rippling outwards until it was a loud-whisper to James’ ears. At the front of it all was a group of seven; five women and two men. One of the women led the gathering, copper skinned and short in stature, yet her voice reverberated through the plaza with passion and intensity. James noticed the wide berth traffic gave the group; not a magical but very human berth. This was not a peaceful occasion.

“For too long have we allowed our rights to be abused. Working tirelessly for a Tower that would sacrifice our lives for military gain. But they ask even more, again and again pushing our lot to the fringes of this lustrous city; NO LONGER!”

“NO LONGER!” The chants echoed throughout the plaza. James could barely see her, but the dark woman’s voice echoed almost louder than the crowds. He was sceptical of her voice’s clarity, and its palpable influence on the vast crowd.

The crowd itself was a conglomeration of characters; from labourers in dirtied overalls, to white-collar workers wearing older fashioned suits, akin to his own. James subtly doused himself in dust, diminishing the sheen of his recently cleaned attire; it was never smart to stand out in a mob.

Moving slowly into the crowd the scent of tobacco and industrial smoke assaulted his senses. The plethora of body odours congealed into a thick musk as he plunged deeper into the crowd. Briefly, he silently-casted Detect Magic, confirming his suspicions. This was a near wholly magic less crowd. There was faint whispers of mana on the air, however, confirming his suspicions regarding the woman speaking. Blood rushed to his cheeks, as anger sat in his stomach. Once again he thanked fate he wasn’t a fire mage.

He knew these people, the lost, the disenfranchised, the foundation from which the Mageocracy has flourished. Most of the gathered appeared youthful, young adults out with like-minded friends, work mates from the area, the most virile of the magic-less demographic. James even spotted some uniformed high school students, chanting proudly with the rest of the cohort.

You were always one to go against the status quo, Sis. But how deep into this are you? I guess you couldn’t just wait for me, could you?

James approached the epicentre of the crowd, barred from moving any closer to the front due to the sheer density of the crowd. He tried to look over the top for a better view, but he could only see the seven figures and the town-hall ahead.

“How can we allow ourselves to languish in obscurity, reduced to numbers on these official’s balance sheets?! We need to be heard, we deserve to be heard: HEAR US!”

“HEAR US!”

James stared at the town-hall, the people inside the target of the chants. It was a red-brick building, showing signs of age in with chips and cracks on the face of it. Wide steps led up to the barred front double-doors of the building, with multiple rows of windows illustrating its multiple floors. Peering into a second-floor window, James pushed mana through his Enchantment Sigil gaining clearer vision.

There was a group of men and women trapped inside. One of the men held a child close, a younger sibling or son, James couldn’t tell. The kids eyes were red, face wet with tears. A few of the women held each other, while a single individual appeared to remain calm; she was on the phone.

James possessed mix feelings for how to handle the situation. The crowd was a keg of emotions - emotions all too common within the magic-less, through no fault of their own. However, he was terrified of the prospect of violence if a confrontation occurred now.

Where are you Lucy Scanlan? I’m not telling Mum and Dad I failed to stop you being arrested, on my first day back in ten-years. Come on, where are you?

It was times like this where James envied Diviners. Still, he used his clarified vision to peer at the seven instigators. He thought he recognised one, but was sidetracked by the lead’s sermon.

“Where has the Tower been, when merman attack our shores? Where are the defences, that which each mage is given from birth? We are powerless because they want us to be, and I say: NO MORE!”

“NO MORE!”

“Damnit that’s ominous.” James muttered to himself. He recognised a violent call to action for what it was; a slippery slope, emblematic of most societal agitators.

By the Towers, I’ve used the same tactic myself.

James opened his satchel, wincing slightly at the drain of mana and vitality. The hit to his health was small, thanks to Cosmo’s consumption of the eavesdroppers mana beforehand, but the pallor of James’ skin still turned ghostly white. His emotions were suppressed by the use of his Dust-infused mana, emotions fed to Cosmo to provide him a semi-physical form.

He sent his friend the mental image of his sister, focusing on the locket he gave her before he had first left home years ago. He hoped she hadn’t removed the dust it held. Cosmo affirmed his order, telepathically, and disappeared through the crowd, an ethereal haze.

James focused on the woman speaking again, praying Cosmo could find his sister before the police arrived. The Militant faction didn’t take kindly to social unrest.

______________________

Cosmo eagerly devoured the crowds emotions, an ethereal haze of negative energy passing through a feast of desires. It could no longer remember the times it had lived without Master. Times when Cosmo could not feed the hunger. Times where Cosmo didn’t exist. The hunger for life could never be satisfied, but with Master it was no longer a ferocious impulse, begging to survive. Where Cosmo was once condemned to the fringes of reality, it now possessed access to all of it. It was euphoric.

Speeding through the crowd, leaving muted mouths and tempered tempers in his wake, the Negative-affinity spirit searched for it’s Master’s target. Master had never asked to be called Master, but Master’s Master warned Cosmo not to call him anything else; the thought of that man caused the ethereal haze to shiver, if that was even possible.

Cosmo sought out the mote of Dust-essence his Master had left on the cherished target. Fuelled by Master’s essence and the sleeping eavesdropper’s dreams, Cosmo strategically let some of the fuel ‘slip’ his form; the slipped essence, itself, sought out more of its likeness. Cosmo loathed the loss of reality, of existence, but he knew Master would reward it in time. Most of the essence returned to Master’s spell-book, a battery of essence so bright Cosmo internally salivated at the prospect of devouring it. However, faint trickles of slipped power led Cosmo to the front of the crowd.

The spirit was nigh invisible to the low-essence crowd. None of the emotions it had fed off changed to horror, so Cosmo assumed itself safe. It knew Master had later plans for it. Master hadn’t realised that feeding Cosmo his dreams showed it his plans. Or, maybe Master knew that; Master was smart after all. Cosmo concluded it loved Master anyway and moved on from its distracting thoughts.

The trickling trail of essence shone like an arrow for the semi-corporeal spirit. It raised itself above the crowd, depriving itself from its feast with a degree of regret. It flew to the town-hall steps with pace. Before it arrived, its metaphysical senses alerted the spirit to flashes of power, inside the town-hall and around Master’s position.

Cosmo sent emotions of urgency, approaching danger, and the images of blue and red all to Master. Cosmo received another dose of Master’s essence in return. The Baku moaned with gratitude, but made certain not to be heard by the low-essence humans near him.

However, the Baku wasn’t quiet or stealthy enough to avoid the outcry of the cherished target on the steps. The cherished target pointed towards the spirit, more than semi-corporeal at this point. Cosmo dispersed the dust form to become even more translucent, moving behind the cherished target and her six companions on the steps. Cosmo then consolidated its form, readying for action.

Cosmo sent Master an affirmation that he had found the cherished target and waited. It remained near the cherished target and her companions, in between them and the town-hall doors. Cosmo hoped Master sent it some more essence soon; the high-essence humans were beginning to arrive. And Cosmo was hungry.

__________________________

James sighed with relief; Cosmo had found his sister. However, the relief turned to dread as he felt waves of mana-slippage wash over him. The police had arrived.

Dispensing with niceties, James formed the rune for Fear with his Dust, igniting the spell with a burst of his Illusion-Enchantment Sigils. He ran towards the town-hall steps. The crowd slowed around him, each person within a ten-metre radius was besotted by an overwhelming sense of dread. He invoked Greater-Invisibility, wincing at the loss of vitality and mana; Cosmo had already taken pound of flesh out of him. He picked up pace, as the frightened mob parted for his invisible form.

Oh course she’s at the top. Sis allayed enjoyed giving orders. Sigmund Jung would’ve a field day with her psyche I reckon.

Just when James arrived at the bottom of the steps he heard the first of the police’s mages.

“Wall of Force.” Came the unified cry. James looked up, witnessing his sister and her agitator companions being surrounded by summoned force barriers. James began to assess his options.

“Remain calm. This is the police, you are surrounded, remain calm. Disperse, and return home or we will arrest for curfew violations. I repeat; remain calm and disperse.” The enchanted echo filled the plaza.

Most of the protesters hesitated, with those on the fringes eagerly departing the scene. The blue and red lights of teleportation circles, of which the police had arrived in, lined the outside of the gathering. However, the police were not alone; in each glowing circle stood a mage in green and gold.

The Militant faction had taken an interest in tonight’s proceedings.

“My friends. Will we let this subjugation continue? This censorship of rights? We have done no wrong. I Suggest we take a stand; are you with me?!”

“Oh fuck, you foolish woman.” James swore. Around him his Fear enchantment remained active but further into the crowd there was movement. James could feel the compulsion push on the back of his mind. Looking outwards a few of the younger police officers appeared similarly affected. Whilst James and the officers were mages, resistant to AoE mind magic, the non-magical masses were not so protected.

The fraying crowd consolidated itself. People linked arms and moved out to trap the officers. Those closest to the steps began to run forward, searching for a way to aid their leaders out of the Wall of Force. Then the magic happened.

James watched as many of the green and gold mages began to cast together. The more eager of the police contingent casted stunning spells; which were almost lethal to the protesters. There was pandemonium as those affected by Fear began to run, making themselves clearer targets than the others. Furthermore, those behind the arm-locked lines of protesters began throwing all they had at the officers.

Shoes were met with magic missiles, rocks with shields, someone threw a metal tool of some description only for it to be hit with a Burning Hands. The sizzle of the tool-throwers flesh shocked not only the protesters but the young mage who had cast it. This was no longer a protest; it was a riot.

By the bloody towers, Cosmo can you gather those inside the Force Wall together. Quickly!

He saw Cosmo, more corporeal than not, push each of the agitators together. The hardest was the leader who had invoked the riot, but she was too drained of mana to stop Cosmo’s persistent pushes.

James tapped his spell-book, stealing from his external mana reserve. What he stole was a fraction of his stored power, but it hurt all the same. It was meant for when he joined the Tower for his demesne, a get out of jail free for a mage with a dangerous element and low VMI; but he authorised the use in the dire case of an emergency.

“This counts.” James grumbled. Channeling through his connection to Cosmo, James sped through the necessary incantations to aid his sister and her friends.

“Dispel Magic! Seeming!” James shouted. His Invisibility and Fear were dropped. In exchange he had executed two spells at fifth level. The Wall of Force dissipated, from the higher tiered Dispel Magic. The rioters, who were pressed against the now vanished wall, swarmed over the steps. Which in turn hid the seven targets of James’ spell from view, long enough that Seeming could alter their forms.

The rioters began to slow. Shouts from the officers continued and the uproar made by the chanting Militant mages wasn’t helping. But, the Dispel Magic had a secondary effect of removing the mental compulsion besotting the rioters, slowing down the carnage and madness. It was not necessarily a good thing, as James grimaced at the new wave of natural fear that overtook the crowd. However, he couldn’t bring himself to care too deeply for the protesters; he had a sister to save.

James ran up the steps, shoving his way towards the seven he had saved. Cosmo hovered over his sister; she was so grown up now.

She looks so much like Dad… Why couldn’t she have been as good natured as he is? I should have been around more, to help.

A tinge of regret dwelled in James’ heart, but he moved on fast with his Dust-infused mana coursing through him.

“Major Image.” Cast James. The town-hall’s doors opened revealing a line of officers. However, they were confused by the stone wall in front of them.

“Dust Ward.” The illusion the officers walked towards solidified. The lead officer’s firebolt bounced off the brief shield hid within the illusion.

James used the distraction to get to his sister’s side. He grabbed her illusory appearance, and held her for a moment. “Sis, if there was ever a time when I needed you to listen to me, now would be it. Follow me.”

“What! James! How! Wait!” It was odd watching the appearance of a bland character speak with his sisters voice. Even weirder was the realisation that her voice had matured. The regret weighed heavier in his heart.

“We need to get the others. I can’t leave them. Please James.” James could feel the emotion in her voice. If it wasn’t for her lack of a mana signature he would have called her an Enchantress. James analysed the situation and noted her friends, scrambling to avoid the crushing crowd.

“Fuck, fine. But you better know somewhere close we can all hide out.” He rushed to the six other agitators, each groggy from the Dispel Magic and confused by the Seeming.

“Hypnotic Pattern.” Cosmo and James began leaving hypnotic runes on the hands of the six. The only one to resist his spell was the woman preacher, but she was still OOM and so didn’t resist for long.

Cosmo find me an exit. James messaged his friend. The Baku appeared as a panther, gliding between protesters and leading the escape. James grabbed his sister’s hand and ran after his friend. Behind him the group of six followed, cloaked in illusory disguises.

“There’s a friends place nearby.” Lucy announced. James nodded.

We need to break the perimeter first.

They sprinted. James applied a mix of illusory combatants, and hellish beasts, to the task of moving strangers out of the way. Whenever people failed to move, Cosmo steamrolled them. The path was clear. Meanwhile, the Militant mages chanting grew in intensity.

“Fuck that doesn’t sound good” Lucy intoned.

“Damnit!” James tapped his spell book for a top-up of mana. “Do we need your friends?” He asked.

“Yes.” Was the quick reply. James fumed.

“Freedom of Movement.” He applied the spell to the group, increasing their speed through the turbulent crowd. It also hit James mana to near OOM status. They sprinted for the perimeter, ducking and weaving between the police and Militants.

They only just made it.

They sped like a group of magic missiles through the crowd and perimeter. The few mages that tried to intercept them had themselves slowed or put to sleep by Cosmo, as he used the stored Dust-essence. Four women, two men, two mages and a Baku spirit all escaped the riot with minor injuries.

The hundreds of NoMs remaining within the perimeter were mass teleported, with the police in tow. The Militant mages waited in their circles, exhausted. A few of them kept tabs on the retreating figures of James’ rescued.

The escapees, horrified, continued their retreat into the night.