“Ow!” Beau rubbed his head, startled and confused he turned to his aggressor - a very red-faced Ella-Mae Watson, holding a large hardback book.

“What are you doing in my underwear drawer?” Her tone contained no love, her disappointed expression was the icing on the frosty cake.

“I just dropped something down the back of the draw, relax, I’d much rather see your pants with you in them.”

“I have a new nickname for you…”

“No, you don’t.”

“Okay… Little Beau Peep. Did you find your sheep?”

Beau smirked and pulled a pair of wooly knickers from the drawer.

“I think so…” Watson made a disgusted face and snatched them away before he could ping them across the room.

“You arse. You know those aren’t mine.”

“Shame I thought you’d look really good in them.”

Before Watson could put the pants back in the draw and pull her husband away, a force of magnitudes she had never experienced blasted through the room. The two magicians turned their heads look at each other and wordlessly ran out the building towards the epicentre.

Being the most powerful magicians in the city, or in Beau’s case, the country, they made it to the area quicker than any of the patrol officers, Beau noticed his sudden reduction of mana, already fairly sure of the culprit.

The buildings were all derelict, made of wood and on, at best, shaky foundation. The dirty wooden sign hung over the entrance signaled the type of establishment they were walking into, ‘The Play-Pen’ It read. Beau grimaced before heading inside, nodding to Watson who also understood the kind of place they were entering. These places always showed up on the police radar as they were always skirting around the edges of the law, they knew they were involved in something dodgy, they just couldn’t pinch them for it.

What was left of the walls were pulsing blue from mana remnants. Beau tried to disperse it so as not to draw attention to any magicians nearby, he recognised this, and he was dreading what he was about to see.

As they got to the middle of the exploded building they saw the staircase to the cellar, where it should be dark was actually glowing with a mysterious purple light.

Beau’s face formed a cold smile as he headed into the cellar using only the light provided as a guide, following it to its source turned out to be slightly more difficult than planned due to a variety of reasons. First, there were dead bodies, strewn across the floor and walls were patches and chunks of human remains. Even Beau had to slightly avert his eyes, not to mention the smell which invaded every corner of the building.

Watson stayed at the entrance, partly to avoid the putrid smell and horrific sights but mostly to avoid anyone entering the cellar after them, whatever was down there, they wanted to find it first.

As he stepped over bodies and broken furniture, Beau eventually found the source of the light, a boy, aged no more than 18 by Beau’s estimate. He was lying on the ground of a broken room, 2 dead bodies lay near him, their genders a mystery now as the bits that remained were burned to a crisp. Beau used mana to cover the green glow and hoisted the boy up onto his shoulder, the boy weighed a lot less than he should and he had scars all over his body. Some were fresh whilst others looked like they were from when he was small as they had morphed into odd shapes as he had grown. Back at Beau’s house above the shop, Beau put the boy on his sofa and reopened the shop, leaving Watson keeping watch in case he woke up.

The day passed like this, nothing much happening in the shop and by the time Marianne left, Beau and Watson were left keeping an eye on the boy whilst tending to their post-work responsibilities, Beau working the cooker and because it was a Sunday, Watson was writing reports so she had a head start on Monday.

“Busy?” Beau inquired, Watson had been going at it all day.

“Yes… You know, I thought once you were caught this city would be quieter but not only has it been crime has increased nearly 3 times since you’ve reigned it in.”

“3 times? And you’re sure there are no rogues?”

“We do find magic at the scenes but it’s different kinds every time so unless there are upwards of 30 rogue magicians in the city, there’s something else going on.”

“Worrying… How’s the kid?”

“Slightly feverish but otherwise still resting, he’s been asleep for hours.”

“My guess is he won’t be awake until the morning. His whole body needs to adjust to the sudden opening of the mana veins. He’ll likely be in pain for a few days as well as he gets used to it. Luckily I have a few methods of suppression.”

“Do you mind keeping an eye on him till morning, I need to sleep. My day tomorr…”

“Of course! Go to sleep, I’ll keep my eye out. I love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you too Beau, see you in the morning.”

“Of course.” The two switched positions, the shop being closed on Mondays, allowed Beau some time to catch up with his stock and a much-needed break from running the shop. The fact that he was not going to get any sleep tonight had no effect on his schedule. It also meant that he would be the first face the boy would wake up to, thankfully Beau himself had also woken up to an experienced magician when he had awakened so he knew this boy would be thankful.

The night dragged on, Beau was struggling to keep his eyes open but forced himself to keep his hands moving on the project he was currently working on. The boy had stopped glowing by now and it looked like his temperature had returned to normal as well. It was approaching the end of winter and the new school season was about to start. Marianne had been working at the shop full time after her first semester at the university.

The boy twitched slightly, it was 4 am. Watson had 2 hours till she woke up so Beau made a mental note to keep it as quiet as possible. He was also starting to regret keeping the boy in the house in case his mana went haywire, but it was too late for that now.

After another couple of minutes, the boy’s eyes jolted open, followed shortly by a loud groan. His arms reached up to his face and gave himself a massaged his temples before propping himself up on his elbows to look around his strange surroundings.

Looking an awful lot like the houses he used to rob, he was immediately thrown off course. The questions started racing through his mind and there was this funny feeling like he was a glass of water so full it was barely containing itself. He looked at the man in blue he had briefly noticed and whimpered “toilet…”

Beau nodded and pointed to a door to the side, the boy rushed inside and all that could be heard was a steady stream and a long exhale that sounded as blissful as it felt.

The boy walked out of the toilet with a fresh face and because he had been naked when they found him, fresh clothes. The boy looked at Beau with a questioning expression. “My hair is blue now?”

“That’s right, I’m afraid that’s the minor change, however.” The boy raised an eyebrow and coughed.

“I would have guessed, it’s not like you’d drug me and bring me to your home for just a haircut. What’ll it be?”

“My boy, you’re misunderstanding a great many things. What was the last thing you remember.” The boy reclaimed his seat on the sofa and thought, after a brief minute he spoke up.

“I remember being angry, so angry I must have fainted because I felt something like a rush of blood to the head then nothing.”

“That sounds terrible. Well, I’m here to tell you with certainty that you have awakened to mana. You fainted due to your body not being able to handle the sudden change and your hair is blue because of the sheer amount of mana coursing through our body in such a short period of time, heck, you sucked almost the whole of Bath’s magician population dry.” The boy scratched his head, understandably confused about the situation.

“You’re telling me I got so angry that I became magic?” Beau sighed.

“Exactly.”

“That’s pretty whacky.”

“I agree.”

“Right, so what do I do?”

“Well, you have only one option realistically which is to sign up to the MCR and enter school. Other than that, go back to wherever you live and continue on, although, I will want to have regular sessions with you. You have a lot to catch up on.”

“So this happened to you?” The boy signaled Beau’s hair.

“It did” The boy sat and thought for a while longer, for so long that Beau went and made tea for the two of them.

“I’ve come to a conclusion.” The boy stated after a generous 27 minutes. “My life up till now has not been one of quality living, if this magician lark can get me somewhere I’ll take it, however…” He paused, choking on the last word.

“Go on.” Beau urged.

“However, I have nowhere to live.”

“Nowhere to live? Then you were a slave boy?”

“Slaveboy…” The boy spat on the ground. “Yeah, a slave boy. Fucked, sucked, and shitted on. What of it?”

“You’ve had it hard, kid, more than any should have at your age. Listen, I have a friend with a spare room. Stay there until you can leave on your own two feet. Your life’s about to change, kid, more than you ever thought it could."