A little background on Del, and some more information on magic and how things work at Brakebills and in the world of magic at large.

I created Del's position in the school and the concept of Battlemancy as a Discipline, so if you don't recognize it that's why. Also, I'm aware Spencer is a little OOC, but keep in mind that this is a massive part of himself that he's been keeping a secret, a world with much different (read: practically non-existant) moral compunctions. He's still Spencer at the very core, but he's far more powerful when stepping into his role as a Magician and that reflects in his personality. Anything that seems OOC is deliberate and purposeful. This is an AU, he is NOT the precious, innocent Spencer we know and love.

I don't own Criminal Minds or The Magicians. Consider yourselves disclaimed.

BATTLEMANCER-IN-RESIDENCE

After a shared round of brandy, the large group split - Penny and Eliot were sent on their way, Quentin accompanied Dean Fogg to his office, and Del and Spencer led the BAU to their private rooms in the staff quarters.

It was a smallish apartment, large enough for a bedroom, sitting room, small efficiency kitchen, and a single bathroom. The color and decor was similar to Spencer's own in DC, soft browns and greens, cozy mismatched furniture, and wall-to-wall bookshelves. After passing out another round of brandy, Del perched - for there was no other word for the way she tucked in on herself and balanced perfectly - onto the arm of the squashy chair occupied by her husband and broke the mildly uncomfortable silence that had overtaken them.

"I need to properly apologize to all of you. I needed Spencer - he and I created the wards together, and it takes both of us to put them up or take them down. Even so, bringing you here with no warning or consideration was dangerous and wrong of me. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am." She looked between all of them but her eyes lingered on JJ as she spoke, knowing the woman was struggling with everything she'd seen and learned. "If there's anything I can do or tell you to make this somehow easier or better for you, all you have to do is ask."

Surprisingly, JJ was the first to speak. "Where even are we?"

"Upstate New York," Spencer said promptly. "That was always true. The campus is surrounded by wards and charms that keep it hidden and undetectable from anyone who's not supposed to be here, so no one can stumble upon the school by accident."

"And people are really here to learn...magic?" Both Reids nodded.

"It's a three-year graduate program," Del clarified. "Most students are in their early twenties, but occasionally they take younger students like Spencer and me. We were invited to take the entrance exam in the same year, when we were both 17."

"Invited?" Alex asked. They smiled.

"Yes. It's quite disconcerting, actually," Spencer said. "I was on my way back to CalTech from visiting my mom, and I stopped at a rest stop. When I walked through the lavatory door, I was in the entrance hall. For once I didn't question everything - I just took the exam. Dean Fogg helped to...unlock my powers after that-" he glared slightly at his wife's quiet, amused snort, "-and I spent the next three years learning to do things conventional science can't even theorize yet. CalTech didn't mind letting me defer the last half of my Engineering doctorate, though it had lost much of its excitement by then."

"And you, Del?" Rossi asked. "When Spencer said you met in grad school we always assumed CalTech, but it was obviously here at Brakebills. What were you doing before this? Were you at school somewhere else?"

Del smiled softly and a little bitterly into her brandy glass, and Spencer put a supportive hand on her knee. "Brakebills was the first time in my life I set foot in a classroom. I spent my days in the public library reading every book I could get my hands on, and my nights turning tricks for food money and sleeping under bridges."

There was a shocked silence that spanned several moments as her declaration sank in. She glanced up, and grinned brightly to dispel the tension. "I'm not ashamed of doing what I had to do to survive. I was born behind a dumpster in a back alley in Brooklyn. My mother was an addict, as was I, and she raised me on the streets or in homeless shelters my whole life. It's why I'm so small, she was incapable of taking care of herself when she was pregnant with me and we so rarely had food. She OD'd when I was 14 and I lost myself on the streets so I wouldn't have to go into foster care. I got to Brakebills when I walked through the front doors of the Metropolitan Library one morning - very fitting if you ask me."

"So you got clean when you went to school?" Penelope asked, ever searching for the happy ending. Both Spencer and Del laughed.

"God no!" she said. "Do you have any idea the kind of swag you can score on this campus? Physicals are inherently hedonistic, and it takes us a bit longer to grow out of it than most. Tack on the fact that working magic is like a high in and of itself, it's easy to overindulge. Luckily we both calmed down in our twenties."

Rossi spoke the words on everyone's mind. "So the Tobias Hankel incident..."

"-was actually a relapse," Spencer finished for him. "Nothing since then, though."

"If using magic is like a high then isn't it dangerous for you?" JJ asked, clearly concerned. Del smiled as Spencer answered - it was nice to see her husband's best friend growing more comfortable and accepting of his secret life.

"No - it is like a high when you experience it, but that's more like a side effect, sometimes it's even unpleasant. Only a weak-powered or weak-willed Magician suffers from the lingering issues and symptoms that come with addiction. Del and I are neither of those things."

"How did the school find you?" Derek asked.

"Magic," Del purred mysteriously, and to her and Spencer's joy Derek rolled his eyes with a grin. Everyone seemed to be rolling with the developments nicely. "Really though. Powerfully charmed globes that detect magical aptitude. While you have to be born with the aptitude for magic, you're not born capable of using it. It's incredibly complex with literally thousands of variations for individual spells - we call them Complications. But some are easier to manage, and people can do it without realizing it. That's what the globes search for. Some of Spencer's magic tricks were real magic."

"What were you doing?" Penelope asked this to Del.

"Linguistics," the small Magician nodded her head to Alex. "I studied languages voraciously, I'm quite proud of being a polyglot. When I was 'working' I would distract myself by making up languages - grammar, syntax, the whole shebang. Sometimes when I was alone I would talk to myself in them and things would happen - objects moving, plants sprouting in chemically ravaged soil. I was performing spells without realizing it. When I found out I was a Magician, that I was special and could do incredible things - I'd never imagined anything like it. Brakebills became my haven."

"Which is why you never leave campus," Hotch spoke for the first time, a statement rather than a question. Del nodded.

"This is the only place I've ever felt safe, except for the cabin we take in the mountains every year. And even that place is warded practically to the moon and back. That and I'm bound by my oath to the school to serve as protector and guardian for everyone here - I don't leave when there are students on campus, and some of them live here year round like I did. Our anniversary is the only time I set foot off the grounds."

"So you really are Director of Security?" Hotch asked, trying to suss out what was fact and what was elaborate cover-up.

"That's the closest title Spencer can use. In addition to acting as faculty adviser for the Physical kids, my official position here is Battlemancer-in-Residence," Del answered matter-of-factly. "The wards and barriers around campus are the school's first line of security. I'm the second. I'm basically a one-woman police force for the school, though the Dean handles student discipline."

"Battlemancer?" Rossi asked. "I assume that's...exactly what it sounds like?" Del and Spencer both smiled.

"Yes. Battlemancy is a highly specialized Discipline of Physical magic, the rarest kind. Very powerful and very, very dangerous - most Magicians can use some battle magic to an extent, but very few are capable of it as a formal Discipline. We almost always stay with our alma mater or move to another school to act as protectors. They offered the position to us as partners but Spencer wanted to work in the straight world. Uh, non-magical," she quickly supplied when they clearly missed the vernacular.

"Reid is one too?" Derek asked, eyebrow raised. Sitting comfortably in their home, neither Reid meshed well with image conjured by the word 'battlemancy'. The younger man nodded.

"Let's just say that there's a higher-up in the Bureau that gave the final agreement to waive my fitness requirements because he knew I had other means of handling myself if it every truly came down to it."

The rest of the team let that sink in for a moment. One of their bosses was a Magician too. Had likely gone to this very school.

"But..." JJ broke the silence, then immediately closed her mouth and shook her head.

"What, JJ?" Spencer asked.

"I don't understand something...what about Tobias Hankel? If you're some kind of...I don't know, magical super-warrior, how did he even take you?"

"You mean why didn't I defend myself?" Spencer asked. JJ nodded. "Part of it is that I was caught off guard. I don't actually use a lot of magic in my everyday life - I didn't wear defensive talismans or charms like most Magicians to protect myself from physical or magical attack, though I do now. He snuck up on me from behind. The other part is that Tobias was a Magician too." JJ and Penelope audibly gasped, and the other four team members were visibly surprised. "The cemetery was dripping in wards and barriers. I couldn't have done anything even if I'd had full use of my hands."

"So you have to use your hands?" Penelope asked.

"Yes," Spencer said. "Magic is like a nuclear power. You have to handle it carefully and specifically or you're dead. It's manipulated with extremely precise movement and language - one wrong angle of the fingers, one misspoken word, and you can wreak untold devastation when all you wanted to do was boil water for tea."

"Does it affect your emotional state?" Rossi asked.

Del smirked. "I think what you're really asking is 'what the fuck was up with you back there', yes?" Rossi smiled his little shit-eating smile, nodding. "Don't fuck with my charges, especially my Physicals. But it's more than that - the entrance exam doesn't just determine your magical aptitude, it determines if the kind of person you are, way down deep, is capable of handling everything that comes with being a Magician. Julia may be capable of using magic, but she's incapable of remaining in control of herself. You saw her - emaciated, dark circles under her eyes, desperate to blame anyone but herself for what she did. The hunger, the craving for magic has taken over and it's all that matters to her now. Scarlatti's Web is a horrific spell. I have a nasty temper, and she nearly killed one of my favorite students - I was far more gentle with her than I wanted to be."

"It probably would have been kinder to kill her," Spencer said softly, to the surprised looks and quiet exclamations from his team. Del shook her head at them, imploring them to understand.

"He's not being malicious - one day she's going to do too much, try and work more magic than her body is capable of handling. When that happens, it will take her over - snuff out who she is until only the magic is left. Then she'll be a niffin, and nothing can bring her back from that. Any Magician would rather be dead than become a soulless, empty husk of a human being. If Spencer was in danger of becoming a niffin, I'd kill him without a second thought. He'd do the same for me. It truly would be a kindness."