Mina rushed right into a hug with Karin. Martin had not been much of a hugger. It seemed to be another difference between them. At this point, she was starting to feel a bit like a rebellious teen that wanted to do the opposite of her parents just to spite them. Wait, did that mean she sort of viewed Martin as her father?

That was a rabbit hole and half that would swiftly lead nowhere. She put the pointless thought aside.

"Are you okay, Karin?" she asked after releasing the hug.

"That's what I was about to ask you." She looked somewhat distraught. "I am fine. I was really worried about you. I'm still worried for the horses. They might have been so scared from the noise that they may have hurt themselves. I need to check if they’re okay. Meanwhile, make us two cups of tea. I’ll join you when I’m ready, and we’ll talk about what happened.”

Well, she certainly had questions aplenty, not only about this Consortium stuff. But she understood Karin was in no shape to answer any until she had checked on the horses.

“Okay. I’m really curious what they meant by saying I was awakened.”

Karin was already on her way out the door, and almost stumbled in surprise.

“They said that? Well, that changes everything. I’ll explain afterwards.”

With that, she rushed out. Mina found some herbal tea that looked promising and made two cups. She sat down on the couch, thinking about what she wanted to ask. Who was the Consortium? From what she could remember, a consortium was a business association of sorts. What kind of businesses was this? How powerful were they? Obviously resourceful enough to have dedicated agents that could drop from a helicopter on a fairly short notice. How long had it been from the moment she turned on the cell phone until they arrived? An hour? Less than two, certainly.

There was plenty of time for her to go through her questions. So much time that she became increasingly worried something might be wrong. In the end, she went out to the stables to find nothing unexpected. Karin was talking on the phone while checking the horses. Mina returned inside to wait. Time passed so slowly when she had no Internet or anything to distract her except worrisome thoughts. Finally, Karin returned.

“I’m really sorry. I had to check that no bones were broken. Some of them have marks from crashing or pushing against the walls, but thankfully nothing serious.”

She took a sip of her tea, and grimaced. It had been cold for quite some time now.

“Okay. Right. The horses are okay, but I’m still worried. Not for me, it’s highly unlikely the Consortium will do anything to me. I worry that they'll be back for you after they talk to the witch. We still don't know what they want with Martin, and by extension, you."

She looked at Mina with sad eyes.

"You can't stay here. I can't protect you from the Consortium. The only way to ensure your safety is to come under the protection of someone sufficiently influential. I spoke to Britney while outside. We have a rudimentary plan."

“She and Camille will be here in an hour or two. They’ll bring what clothes they can find that might fit your size. Camille will drive you to the Dawnhill Academy. Here’s where it gets tricky. It's not possible to drive all the way up to the school. She will take you as far as she can. After she drops you off, you need to walk up to the school and seek admittance. If you can convince them to enroll you, you’re basically safe from the Consortium. Or at least as safe as we can manage."

She sighed heavily.

“I understand this is a lot to ask of you. It’s the best we can come up with.”

Mina shook her head. “I am grateful for all the help you’ve given me. Don’t worry, I’ll manage. But since we have some time now, I’m hoping you could help me with some of the questions I have.”

In fact, she sort of looked forward to this. Yes, there were undoubtedly problems down the lane. But it also gave her some much-needed agency over her own fate. Be able to do something rather than sit around and wait for trouble to find her.

“Of course. Ask Away.”

Karin smiled, but it was a bit fake. She didn’t seem super stoked about this plan, but Mina couldn’t figure exactly why without more clues.

“Okay. The Consortium. Who are they?”

“Truth to be told, I don’t know all that much myself. I think they are like the FBI for the unveiled world. Whenever someone breaks the Law of the Veil, they show up to deal with it. I don't know what other purposes they have. I do know they keep a register of every single unveiled individual, including me.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to walk me through the basics here. What is the Veil, and the unveiled world?”

“Right, sorry about that. Okay, this will take some time to explain. The veiled world refers to the mundane world that most people know. The unveiled world, in contrast, encompasses all magical phenomena and awakened beings, and the people that are in the know."

"An awakened being is one with magical abilities, I take it?"

"Yes. People like me who are part of the unveiled world but have no supernatural abilities are sometimes referred to as initiates."

"I see."

"As for you being awakened, the reason you might not have noticed it's that awakened talents can be really subtle. Most likely because of the Veil."

Mina raised an eyebrow.

"I thought the Veil was a sort of pact about hiding magic from muggles, or something like that."

Karin shook her head.

"The Veil is a lot more than just a pact. All muggles, or mundanes, as they are usually called, naturally dampen magic around them. The more mundanes around, the stronger the dampening. This applies even stronger to magic manifestation outside one's body. There's a reason why there has never been news of a terrorist mage throwing a fireball into a crowd of people. It’s basically impossible unless all of them were unveiled and they were miles away from everyone else."

She pointed to a picture on the wall, showing Karin and Britney as teenagers.

"The reason I know comparatively much about this subject is Britney. When she was still in middle school, she lifted a boulder half the size of a car off a child. With no witnesses, no one actually believed her when she explained what happened. When trying to reproduce the stunt in front of others, she failed. Long story short, I believed her, and after countless tests in the forest, we gradually pieced together how her power worked and its limitations.”

“Wow. That’s incredible.”

“Later, someone I think was from the Consortium found us and basically interrogated us. Fortunately they believed our story, and judged that we hadn’t broken the Law of the Veil. They taught us what we needed to know, among them how the veil worked. The limitations we had discovered on Britney's strength was due to the veil, not the awakened talent itself.”

“What is this Law of the Veil?”

“I have never read it, to be honest, but I have been told it is long and convoluted. My knowledge is limited to what is applicable to my situation. One important part is that there are very strict restrictions on initiating someone. Essentially, it’s illegal to share information about magic with veiled individuals.”

“Are you breaking an important rule by telling me this?”

“No, there are two important exceptions. You happen to be one of them. It is not only legal, but mandatory to teach awakened individuals about the Veil. The other exception is regarding taking apprentices, and it is almost prohibitively restrictive. An awakened person may only ever take two individuals as apprentices, and the Consortium has to be informed about your choices. If you want to teach your own children about magic, you need to take them as apprentices. If you have more than two children, well, then you can only teach two of them. Which in almost all cases means the eldest two. Since I'm merely an initiate, I can never take any apprentices at all.”

“Right. And apparently I'm awakened. I wouldn’t know if the rude guy hadn't told me.”

“He or she was probably a sensor. Awakened people whose talent is the ability to sense magic in some form. The important part is that you are awakened, not how you discovered it. The reason all Awakened must be taught about the Veil is to prevent them from breaking it willy-nilly because they don’t know any better.”

“Let me guess, that has happened before?”

“Probably. As I’m sure you have guessed, I’m not exactly a member of any inner circle or VIP club. The only two awakened people I personally know are Britney and Camille. Camille has worked with the Consortium in the past and knows a lot more than me, but she has serious restrictions on what she can share.”

“Okay. A different question. I understand the Consortium wants to keep the Veil intact. Is it to have a monopoly on their powers, or genuinely protect people?”

“I’m afraid that’s a question I don’t know the answer to. They would obviously answer the latter if you asked them, but do they have any ulterior motives? Who knows?”

“With as much power as they have, are they basically bullying people into doing what they want? Power corrupts and all that.”

“Again, I don’t know. I’m sure they have their secrets. Camille never gave me the impression that they’re particularly evil, at least. I mean, not more than any other big organization. There are always some bad apples. Maybe ask her?”

“I will. But you know what the rest of that saying is? 'A rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.' I don't think you can excuse killing more than a hundred people with a few rotten apples. I mean, even if every single one of the guests were pushing drugs to kids, I still don't think it would be okay to kill them without trial. Not to mention the collateral, such as Martin."

"We're still not entirely sure the Consortium was responsible for that. It is a possibility that it was someone else, and that the Consortium is investigating it."

"It's possible, but I have a good argument against that hypothesis. I'm pretty sure that the short, rude agent participated in the massacre. As in, was part of the group that killed the rest of the people in the room Martin was hiding in."

"That's... bad. Really bad. I don't know what else to say."

"Let’s try a different topic, then: My magic. I understand you can’t tell me everything, but can you tell me about what types of magic exist, so that I can try to test or something?”

“That’s a very broad question. You might be easier off asking ‘what kind of magic does not exist?’. Take any myth, story and fiction with magic, and it’s not unlikely that it might have some root in actual history. In general, though, in our modern world it’s pretty much impossible to do large-scale magic because of the Veil. For example, there are probably individuals that can nudge the weather in a direction, but no one can create snowstorms in the desert. Actually, now that I think about it, it's possible someone can, if the desert is remote enough. Sorry, bad example. I hope you got the point regardless."

Mina nodded.

Karin went on: “I do know one thing for certain, since we specifically asked about it in regards to Britney: There are generally two types of magic available. Naturally awakened, and learned. Britney’s powers are naturally awakened. Yours too, whatever they are."

"The other type is sometimes called ‘arcane’, and individuals capable of using it are called mages. It is technically possible for any unveiled individual to learn arcane magic, regardless of whether they have naturally awakened magic or not. The problem is that it’s incredibly complex and hard to master. Like, brain surgery hard. Also, the difference between different branches of magic can be as massive as two completely different fields. Continuing the example; you’ve got your PhD or something in brain surgery, now you have to master hieroglyphs. As a result, mages tend to stick to one ‘branch’ of magic. Those that know more tend to be old.”

“I think I’ll skip that career path, then.”

“Probably for the best. Especially since mages require tutorships which can be insanely expensive."

"How common is naturally awakened magic, then?"

"Pretty common, actually. That's why we have schools like Dawnhill Academy. They try to sell you the concept that anyone, particularly your child, can awaken given the right circumstances. All it takes is a moderate fee, and placing your child in their trust."

She seemed almost bitter as she spoke about this topic.

"I have spent half my life being jealous of Britney, wishing I had my own magic to draw on. When Anders was born, I had the opportunity to give him what I never had myself. I wanted to send him to Dawnhill, until Camille talked me out of it. Primarily because doing so would break the Law of the Veil. As an initiate, I wasn’t allowed to bring Anders into the unveiled world."

There was a tense pause before she continued.

"She shared some discouraging stories with me. Children that spent all their school years on Dawnhill and even awakened, but at an unexpected cost to the parents. After so many years away from them, they barely knew their children. Not only that, but the stay at Dawnhill had made them elitists that now looked down upon their own parents. All that, for an ability that most likely only worked far from any Veiled individual, meaning many of them choose never to return to their families. Yes, your child has magic, but they could just as well be a stranger in a different country."

At the end, Mina got the impression she was more trying to justify her own choice than convince Mina.

"Maybe it’s not the best place for me to go, then?” she cautiously asked.

“It’s the safest place for you to go. That makes it the best place right now. Besides, they can also help you learn more about your own powers. They help already awakened children better control their powers, too.”

Mina nodded. She was actually very curious about her own power, and what it might be. Maybe she had something really cool, like flying or fire magic. Not quite as cool if she couldn't freely use them, but better than nothing. Actually, now that she thought about it, flying might not be very safe. What if she flew too close to people and just crashed down to the ground?

"Karin? Is awakened magic always positive? Could you awaken to something that was genuinely dangerous for you?"

"I don't know. Sorry."

"One last question, at least for the moment. The word 'consortium' usually refers to a business cooperation of sorts. What you have explained makes them seem more like a federal secret police. Why the name?"

Karin looked a little taken back.

"Really? I didn't know. I mean, the Consortium is just a name for me. I didn't know it actually meant something, other than a certain organization. Huh. Now I'm curious, too. I'll have to ask Camille about it later."

She rose from her seat.

"Before our guests arrive, we need to make dinner. I suggest you try to take a nap. You'll probably be awake quite late tonight."