I wasn't planning on doing anything for today's prompt until I realized that I could use it to infodump on my hedge wizard headcanons, and then somehow Claire angst snuck into the ending.


It was a quiet day at Zimue Records, aside from the multitude of fans whirring and failing to keep away the August heat. Zoe hated this part of living in Southern California – everything was so warm and humid in the late summer, and it wouldn't get better until mid-to-late October. She wondered if receiving the insurance payout from the damage to the wall shared with the now-burnt down GDT Arcane Bookstore would mean the owner would finally install an air conditioning unit here.

Zoe felt a chill run through her as she sensed an ancient, eldritch magic. Lovely. First Hex Tech, then her best friend, and now those so-called demigods were going to wreck the record store. Zoe wouldn't have it, not if she could help it. Behind the counter Zoe began to collect her magic. That was another thing she hated about the humidity – static electricity wouldn't build up as easily, so she'd have to rely more on her own reservoir than the charged air.

The door pushed open, and the source of the ancient, eldritch magic stepped into the store. Or, more specifically, a teenage girl walked in, looking around. Zoe released her hold on her magic, wondering how an untrained wizard could have such a powerful signal.

"Zoe, right?" the girl asked. "Douxie told me to come find you, for help with training and stuff?"

Ah, right. That did sound familiar. All in one night (and longer because of time travel), Douxie had become a so-called master, taken in his own apprentice, and then passed off said apprentice to Zoe in a series of apologetic texts. Zoe had asked him what in the seven realms he had been thinking, and he'd then revealed that he'd left the state and was currently on the run with a demigoddess. Oh, and that he had also died, and really planned on doing as much tutoring as he could remotely but please?

"Yeah, he told me about you." He'd also told Zoe his apprentice's name, which Zoe was currently blanking on. Blaire, or something like that?

"I'm not exactly sure how well it'd work, though, since Merlin implied that you were a different type of wizard, so wouldn't your magic work really differently than mine and Douxie's?"

Zoe took a deep breath. According to Douxie, this girl hadn't even known that she was a wizard until very recently. She wasn't trying to reignite centuries-long cultural disputes.

"Do you think Douxie and I are two different species, or something?" The girl, whose name Zoe really needed to learn, looked very confused. "Because that's the only way you can get magic working that differently. Likewise, it's not like you could go to a troll for training and expect everything to work out the same way for spells."

"Then, what's the difference?"

"It's entirely cultural. Douxie was raised through the apprentice system, in which a master takes in a single wizard and trains that singular wizard exclusively until they reach an arbitrary level that makes them a master. I'm from a coven, so I'm used to training multiple kids."

"Wait, that's the only difference? Then, aside from the fact that his ego was the size of a Heartstone, why was Merlin so annoyed by you being a hedge wizard?"

"Elitism." And because Merlin must've had a second staff shoved up his arse. Of course, Zoe wouldn't say that out loud until Douxie had had at least a month to grieve. She'd let that delicate matter rest for now. "And I'll admit, the apprentice system has produced a higher ratio of super-powerful wizards, even ones who manage to achieve immortality, than the coven system." There was a reason why they focused so much on staves, even though a staff was incredibly dangerous to use for someone who hadn't been trained properly. A wizard could get too cocky, and they'd completely destroy their resevior as the staff siphoned out far more magic than the wizard had available to them.

"But," Zoe continued, "that's more because there have always been less apprentices being trained than those being trained by covens, and apprentices got more time devoted to them. But, I think Douxie is the last survivor of the traditional apprentice system."

"Do you actually deal with hedges?"

Zoe blinked. This girl had seen Hex Tech; surely she had noticed all the technology and none of the greenery. "The word hedge wizard entirely applies to how covens were traditionally always been more rural, even back during the Roman Empire. It's kind of like how on a farm, you have more kids to help out, and in a city you really focus on only a few kids because it's another mouth to feed. And no, I'm only a couple years older than Douxie, so I wasn't around during the Roman Empire."

The girl nodded. "Okay. How do you want to start."

"See that box of records over there?" Zoe said, pointing. "Levitate them."

The girl's eyes widened. "I can't levitate things."

Oh, seriously? This was the apprentice Douxie had picked out? Creepy magic, asked the wrong ignorant questions, and a quitter?

"Why?"

The girl hung her head slightly. "I get panic attacks whenever I try to levitate something."

Oh. Well, the good thing was that Blaire-or-whatever-her-name-was wouldn't take after her master and levitate records just to annoy Zoe. But, what had happened to this kid? Zoe knew she was involved with the troll stuff from earlier in the summer given her armor (and really, why was a kid wearing armor), but what had caused her so much trauma over levitation.

"Okay, then. No levitation, at least not until you start seeing a therapist or something. My shift here ends at 4:30, why don't you meet me then to show me what you can do?"