Interlude the First

Taylor had been so happy when she'd gotten home. She'd spoken a mile a minute about how she'd flown. It had almost been like she'd been before… She'd been out half an hour later than she'd said she'd be back by, and Danny had wanted to be mad, but it'd been so long since she'd smiled like that. Taylor had gone to bed, just half an hour ago, and Opal had flown down into the living room.

"Opal," Danny called out, "could I talk to you?"

"Of course, Mister Hebert," the stick answered, "Actually I was hoping to talk with you about Taylor."

"What else is there to talk about right now?" The man and the wand shared a laugh. "Anyway, I heard an explosion not that long after the two of you left..."

"Ah, yes, um..." the stick sounded embarrassed. "That was us. You should be proud to have a daughter with such potential..."

"Oh, believe me, I am." Danny smiled. "So, she flew. That's an impressive bit of magecraft."

"Oh yes, it is and..." the stick froze in mid air. "How did you know that?"

It was Danny's turn to smile. "Oh, you learn those things when you're born into a family of mages, even if I was never very good at magecraft myself." The stick was speechless. "Of course, that was before the prana disappeared… Or so I thought before you showed up."

Opal was twisted in a shape of confusion. "You… You're a magus? You, you know what the anomaly is?"

"Was a magus, and only a fifth rate one from a minor family at that," answered Danny. "To be fair, I was technically the heir, but only because I was the only Hebert with any magecraft capability born in my generation."

"Fascinating," the stick answered, "but seriously, the anomaly?"

"No clue," Danny said to the stick, "the number of mages being born had been in decline for centuries. Last I heard, the Mage's Association was just five guys who got together to drink beer and play cards while talking about the good old days." Danny laughed in a bitter way. "Then, a few years before parahumans started showing up, the magic disappeared… Again, or so I thought. I can tell you when it happened, but I have no clue how or why."

"Well," Opal began, "knowing when the anomaly began is a big help by itself. And being a descendant of magus family, even a small one… Well, prodigious numbers of circuits appearing randomly in a single generation aren't unheard of…" Opal twisted herself into a questioning shape, "Did Taylor's mother come from a magus family as well?"

Danny shook his head. "Not as far as I could tell. She never gave any sign of knowing a thing about magecraft, and the only odd thing about her childhood, as far as she told me, was that she was homeschooled till she was seven."

"Hmm, still, Mister Hebert, your daughter makes so much more sense coming from a magus family." Opal straightened and then curved in a manner reminiscent of stretching. "May I ask what your family's spells were?"

"Mostly transferring prana into objects," Danny answered. "We were specialized in creating mystic codes."

"Interesting," the sapient mystic code said, "Did your family have a crest?"

"Yes, but I don't have it," Danny himself stretched, "it's sealed away in storage somewhere. My father wanted to wait and see if one of my children would be able to use the family mysteries, but the prana seemingly vanished well before I had any kids..."

Opal finished for him, "and Taylor's much too old to take the Crest now, isn't she?"

"Probably," Danny answered, "and even if she wasn't I still wouldn't give it to her."

Opal bent, intrigued. "Why not Mister Hebert?"

Danny shrugged. "Most magi are assholes."

Danny figured that Opal would have blinked, had she been capable. "Is that… it?"

"No, but it's a good enough reason by itself." Danny stood up from his seat. "Opal, the life of a magus is dangerous. I never said anything about magic, until now, because I didn't think there was a point to it, but now?" Danny paused for just a moment. "I don't want the life of a magus for Taylor." Danny looked Opal in the star… He was pretty sure that that's where her eyes would be if she had them. "Opal, please. Don't tell Taylor anything I've told you."

Opal was silent for a moment, before answering, "Okay, Mister Hebert."

"Thank you, Opal." Danny sat back down. "Can I ask you a question, Opal?"

"Of course, Mister Hebert."

"I'm a bit curious about Taylor's magical aptitude. Can you tell a magus' origin?"

"No, Mister Hebert, such analysis is beyond me. However," Opal added in a sly tone, "I have a general idea of Taylor's elemental alignment, from feeling how her prana flows. It feels as if Taylor would be equally adept with any of the five standard elements. From this," Opal said with pride in her voice, "while I don't quite know what her Origin is, I feel that it's safe to conclude that my new master is..."

"An Average One… Holy shit." Despite the name, being an Average One was quite rare. Danny pumped his fist into the air.

"Yes, however crudely you put it. However, Mister Hebert, I feel that we've gotten a bit off topic. What was it that you'd initially wanted to speak about?"

"I'm… I'm worried about Taylor, Opal. She has to go back to that school Monday, and I'm afraid that whoever it was that filled her locker with that, that filth, will try something again." Danny sighed. "You'll be going along with her, hiding in her hair like you were when the two of you left?"

"Of course," the stick answered.

"Can you try and keep an eye on her?"

Opal responded with a flurry of emotion,"try and stop me! Those cretins will rue the day they decided to pick a fight with my master!"

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, Opal," Danny said in response, "but could you keep it down? I don't want to wake Taylor."

"Oh, sorry, sorry," Opal replied in a harsh whisper.

Danny chuckled, before turning serious. "I just wish there was some way to catch Taylor's bullies in the act."

"There may well be, Mister Hebert," began Opal mischievously, "there may well be."

"Oh?"

"I'm far from the only Kaleidostick, Mister Hebert," Opal explained. "We have ways of communicating amongst ourselves, at least when we're in the same world. I happen to have both audio and video recording capability as well as a projector stored within myself for exactly that reason. If I just happen to be recording Taylor's interactions with certain cretins..."

Danny smiled, a mischievous smile, normally seen on young boys or on sadistic serial killers. "I like the way you think, Opal."