It had taken a while. We were hunters, but the person we were chasing wasn't prey.
Which kinda upsets things, to be honest.
We had been following him for several days. We knew little of him except that he has broken the biggest law we had.
He trained magicians.
"Sir…" said my foliot, winking suggestively. Don't ask. I tried to go in for maximum effectiveness with minimum personality, but, it somehow never worked. "The target has barricaded itself in a warehouse. We can see no guards nor any sign that he has protected himself.
"See Mark?" asked my partner, Hilary smirkishly. "He isn't nearly as good as you thought."
I paused. The warehouse door stood before me. "Stop." I said, before she could go in.
"Why?" she asked. Her Djinn, which was currently an angry plant bird thing, wrapped its tail around her.
"I'm not worried about how smart or talented he is. I'm worried about how sane he is. Smart magicians are dangerous, but not…and I should stress this, hazardous. The only 7th rank ones are in America at the moment anyway…" I let the thoughts die. Even these days, when everyone is supposedly equal, people are actually stupid enough to bring themselves down.
"So? Out target lacks any of those…dangerous qualities…he's just a man who thought the government was dumb." she said impishly. Really, I mean impishly. Hilary was thin and dark haired. Too bad real imps don't look like her.
"He has one quality that makes him far more dangerous. Insanity. And a summoning horn." I watched as she took a deep breath. "Yes…no circle. Just his power. Even a non magicians who knows enough and has potential power can summon just about anything with it. If we handle this wrong…"
"I don't hate the fact that you're right." she sighed. "I just hate you."
Well, a typical day so far then.
The man was already bleeding when we went in. The broken summoning horn lay at his feet. He couldn't control what he summoned. We almost sneaked up on him when…
"MASTER HE'S RIGHT THERE!" yelled me foliot on his hardest.
I am going to study new ways of torturing demons, just to use it on him.
The man stared up at us, limp white eyes grinning. Grinning madly.
"Ah…it appears I am…caught." he whispered, the blood trickling down his mouth.
"Yes…a masterly summation." I said. "Now…before you bleed to death I have some…questions for you."
"Ah! But of course. I will serve the valiant authorities. I will now…spill my guts…in every sense of the word." I had the bad idea of looking at his stomach. Not a good idea.
"Okay…basically…" said Hilary. "Why were you teaching magic, knowing full well the consequences of such an act?"
"Simple!" he said joyfully. "I am aiming to spread anarchy, discontent and general chaos! Next question!"
I paused. Yep….first rate nut job…but something isn't right. "How were you planning to do this?" I asked, dreading his reply.
"Another easy one! I found orphans with large, wonderful untapped reserves of magic, easily would've made it to the 6th level in our just system and taught them basic summoning!" he smiled, as if he was rewarding us.
"Right." said Hilary. "He's crazy. Let's toss him in the chamber and call it a night."
"No…" I said, chillingly. "That wasn't all you did was it? There was something else…what was it?"
"Oh dear…we have a clever one! One who realizes that anyone who can spend hours drawing chalk lines in exactly the same way can't be completely insane! All though it did add to it, I might say." he laughed, tossing his head back. I tried to figure out his age…thing is, we didn't have levels anymore, not really. He had to be referring to our old system of government.
"We'll Mister Mike Travis, and your foliot who's hanging around, and Miss Hilary Manson, with your two Djinn…" he chuckled as we both panicked. How did he know all this? "I taught them how to use summoning horns.., and gave them each a nice Madrid's name to summon in case they get…in danger."
"And the way you dismiss these creatures was an unfortunate gap in their education?" I asked.
"Dismiss them? Why would they want to? They think the creatures will serve them." he suddenly stood. "It's been a pleasure gentleman. And woman person. But I must leave."
Before I could act Hilary already send both her Djinn to apprehend him. However, the both screeched to a halt right in front of him.
"Oh how precious…" he whimpered. "Look…your magic is of air and fire. No match for mine. And if you'll excuse...me…it's been a pleasure…" There was a flash of darkness, a strong smell of earth…and he was gone.
My name is Mike Travers. Hunter for Internal Affairs.
I am, strictly speaking a magicians. Or rather, a hunter magician.
See, since Britain ascended from magical rule, they realized one important fact.
The rest of the world's magicians weren't going to stop.
Basically…there had to be a magicians army to stop other countries magicians. There was also severe experimentation going on, especially concerning a cheaper anti demon material than silver. People were seeking to completely overtake magic with technology.
Until that happy day comes…we're still going to have agents like me keeping people from learning magic for personal reasons.
My job title is long, eloquent and sounds like I'm there to serve the people. What it means, is quite simply that I am to kill any unauthorized magic users.
It's what I do.
It's what I do very well.