The next morning, Raven went into the kitchen to make breakfast. He decided to let Mason continue sleeping on the couch until he plated food for them both. As his weight settled onto the couch, his rommate jerked awake.

"Who, where?" Mason covered his eyes with his hand until they adjusted to the light. "Raven?" The younger boy looked at his watch. *Oh, heck.* The words ran through his mind as he jumped up and grabbed his bookbag and schoolbooks.

"Mason, relax," Raven smirked at his panicking friend. "It's sunday."

"Oh, thank goodness. I feel like I've been hit by a train, and I'm so not ready to face Professor De'Marr. He's sure to have failed me on that last test."

"Computer sciences?" Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Dude, I'm harsher than he is."

Mason started to relax and sat back into the couch. That caused the sunglasses to fall into his face from where they perched on his head. "Speaking of which..."

But before Mason could finish that though, Raven shoved one of the plates of food onto his roommate's lap. He knew that Mason wouldn't be himself until he'd eaten. That's how it always was when Mason stayed up all night studying. "Speaking of which," Raven repeated Mason's words, "Congratulations."

"For what?" Mason had no idea what his friend was talking about. "Turning thirteen?"

"No, silly. For taking the Wizard's Oath." Raven grinned at Mason's shocked look. "You're wondering how I know." It was more a statement than a question. The other boy nodded. "Wizarding manuals have a directory of local wiards and area Seniors."

He knew that word. In fact, he'd read it the night before. Or... early this morning, as the case may be. Mason had experimented with his spy set, aka Wizard's Manual, and found out a lot about its functions. "Display local wizards, please," he said, having already pulled down the mouthpiece.

"Working."

By this time, Raven had taken out his own manual that used to be a car navigation system. The older roommate tapped a seemingly random pattern on the face and a listing appeared. It was sorted first by personally known and unknown wizards, then by location, and lastly by surname, though he can also sort by first name, or change any other options, by tapping on different areas of the screen.

Meanwhile, Mason's quote, unquote, rock appeared in the younger boy's hand. A cone of light came from the top of the rock to land on the ceiling. Raven was shocked to see a map projection when Mason pointed the rock's top to the blank wall, the map followed and righted itself. Pinpoints, some moving, some still, indicated wizards. Mason demonstrated his own sorting system-name only, adding another pinpoint for homes, with the ability to see one or the other-or both, and if both, lines could connect all wizards to their homes, or specified wizards.

"Wow," Raven breathed. "That rocks." Then he paused, facepalmed, and told Mason and Mason's wizarding manual, "No offense."

Mason laughed, then relayed to his friend that his manual said not to worry.

"So," Raven trailed off. "Did you try any spells, yet?"

"Not yet," replied Mason. "I mostly did some reading. Did you know that everything can understand the speech?" Raven nodded. "But yesterday, you took me to that place, and spoke to the doorknob." Again, Raven nodded. "So how come I didn't know what the heck you were saying?"

"Well, first," Raven began. "The planet Earth is _, meaning that normal people don't know about wizards. So, unless the speaker wants them to understand, they won't."

"Ahhh." Mason nodded to show he understood, until the last part. "Wait-you didn't want me to understand?"

"It's not that, exactly. Wizards have to stay u=hidden, unknown by other humans of what they really are." Seeing Mason's questioning look, Raven continued, "Or they become persecuted. LIke with the Salem witch trials."

"That makes sense," Mason admitted.

Just then, Mason's earpiece cut in. "Message for you."

"Display said message on rock, in english. Replace the local wizard listing."

Raven looked on with interest. That sounded more like spy talk than the more familiar words he and his navigator communicated with. When he first got his manual, Raven set it up so that it would beep or use a ringtone to distinguish incoming and outgoing information.

The message on the wall read, "I don't have time to put you through your paces."

Mason turned to Raven, a startled look on his face. "I don't get it. What does that even mean?"

His roommate looked just as mystefied. "I have no idea." At Mason's crestfallen look, he continued: "But I know someone who might have a clue. They are Area Seniors, now, though they've been through and done amazing things."

As Raven was answering, he began writing on the ground with what used to be a stylus for his navigator. The written form of the Speech glowed in the tip's wake. "Now, I just need your name-as it's written in the Speech."

With a grin, Mason presented the face of his spy notebook. He was surprised to note that he could read the words of the transport spell fluently. When he had vowed to start learning languages, this wasn't quite what he had in mind. But it was better.

While his name was written, he made sure to have every piece of his spy set-er... wizard's manual with him. Mason dropped the shades onto his eyes, pressing the earpiece more snug into his ear, and retracted the mouthpiece back into the earpiece. His pen and notepad fit into his wide, deep pocket, the rock nestled in his other, his movements made light reflect off his watch. "Oh, Raven?"

"Yes?" The older boy had finished writing Mason's name. Just as Raven turned towards his friend, his eyes widened. He'd almost got hit with something. Leaning back, he heard Mason say, "This is for you." So, taking the object in his hands, Raven saw it looked like "a phone?"

"No, silly. It's a walkie-talkie. I'll explain how it works, later.

"I know how to use a walkie talkie." Raven wanted to facepalm.

"Okay, well, this has some modifications. Just don't go touching any buttons."

"Ah." He decided to humor Mason. "Well, come over here and make sure I did your name right. I'd hate for you to come out different on the other side, just because I wrote it wrong."

Inspecting his name, Mason suppressed a shudder. It would be very bad if it were written incorrectly. He learned through his reading that thee Speech described something so completely that it *was* the thing's identity. Written or spoken wrong, the thing itself was altered.