When Jeldrik arrived at the office, Tobias Nathan, head of the DMCI, caught him almost immediately at the door. “What’s going on? Where’s Gabriel?”

  Jeldrik explained what they had found. “Mr Winter said you would know who to send.” He did not feel comfortable using Gabriel’s first name in front of his boss, despite everyone else in the office calling each other by their first names.

  “Of course, of course. Oh shoot. Kordian, HelmaW!”

  Kordian Hain was a thin man with curly, black hair that reached to his shoulders. Jeldrik knew he was very skilled in tracking, both magical and physical. He wondered if Kordian could find anything on those horrible, messy wounds that the murderer had left on Argon’s body. If he could not, maybe Helma Lessing, who was a specialist in magical injuries, would be able to discern if there was more to the wounds than met the eye on first glance. Just a few months ago, she had told him, Helma had been able to put an abusive mother behind bars who had punished her kids with magic that was invisible to the naked eye. A friend had voiced her suspicions to the DMCI when she had recognised a difference in the children’s behaviour.

  Kordian and Helma who were seated at desks next to each other and currently the only two people in the whole office, looked up.

  “Gabriel needs you at the scene. You know where to go?,” asked Tobias.

  The two mages nodded, took their things and left the office. Tobias and Jeldrik stood next to the door for a while, Tobias looking at it, seemingly lost in thought. Just as Jeldrik started to walk to his desk, Tobias shook of whatever thought he had had. “One moment, Jeldrik,” he called. The young man abruptly turned around, hoping his nervousness was not visible in his face. Tobias seemed a good person, and yet Jeldrik could not help but worry whenever he was called by him. His slicked back hair and broad, angular face gave Tobias a slightly threatening look, which did not help either.

  “Are you alright, Jeldrik? After what you’ve seen today, I mean.”

  Jeldrik was a bit surprised by the question, which seemed genuine. He had imagined Tobias to be the type of person who would simply expect his officers to be tough enough for the job. Maybe he made an exception with interns, probing them to decide if they might be fit to be hired afterwards.

  “Yes, I’m alright. It was just a shock at first.” Jeldrik still felt weak in his legs and slightly nauseous, but he would have never told Tobias that. He wanted, after all, to be hired. At least he thought so. But that was something he could talk with his boyfriend about at home.

  “It gets easier with every case, believe me or ask anyone of your colleagues. But the first one’s definitely something to chew on for a while.” Tobias smiled at the intern and gave him a pat on the back. “Did Gabriel tell you what to do while he’s gone?,”

  “Oh, no,” answered Jeldrik, relieved his boss had change the topic.

  “You can go home if you want to. I will tell Gabriel later where you’ve gone.”

  “Thanks,” said Jeldrik, then he remembered what Gabriel had told him before. “Actually, Gabriel told me to wait for him here, we wants to talk with me about … well, what happened.”

  “I see.” Tobias nodded, thinking for a second. “Well, if you’d like to leave, I’ll cover for you, no worries. But it’s your call.” Another pat on his back, then he went into his office and closed the door behind him.

  Jeldrik decided to stay in the office and wait. He would try to study a bit.

  As he opened a new tab to continue his research, he heard the office door open and looked up, hoping it to be Gabriel. It was not Gabriel, but Anteo Rizzi. He worked at the DMCI as a magical cybercrime specialist, which was likely the most interesting thing you could tell people at a party. And not just for mages.

  The second most shocking revelation for non-mages was that magical cybercrime existed. That a subsection of the internet was controlled by mages and full of curses. The easiest way to explain it to non-mages was by comparing those curses to computer viruses, only that curses could effect not just the computer, but the user himself.

  When Jeldrik had met Anteo for the first time, he had to restrain himself from asking one question after the other. And when he already met Anteo’s job with such curiosity, he could not blame non-mages for their reaction.

  “Hey Jeldrik,” called Anteo from the door. He took off his coat and hung it on the coat stand. Below it he always wore a buttoned shirt in different colours and kept the top two buttons undone. Jeldrik had already caught himself multiple times staring at the hair on Anteo’s chest and felt lucky for not having been caught by anyone else yet. He was also careful in not mentioning Anteo to his boyfriend, not because he second-guessed his relationship in any way (he was in fact quite happy with Viktor), but he knew how insecure Viktor would become if he sensed any hint of Jeldrik’s attraction to Anteo. It probably would result in an argument that stretched over the whole day and left anyone involved miserable without having solved anything.

  Jeldrik raised a hand in greeting and Anteo, after winking at him, walked into the kitchen. Jeldrik heard him start the coffee machine. He went back to his research and opened the biggest Mage Web search engine there was, TeaLeaf. Then he typed in “intrusion awareness risks,” but the results were sparse. One result brought him to a forum were a user claimed to have invoked the rune on his house with the effect only dwindling after three years instead of the one year as mentioned in the Mage Rune Archive. Though to Jeldrik it read like nothing more than bragging, as the longevity of magical effects often depended strongly on the mage’s abilities.

  From the kitchen, a faint coffee scent spread out in the office. Jeldrik decided to pause his research, got up and walked into the kitchen. Anteo stood leaned against the window sill, reading a magazine, a coffee cup in his other hand. Jeldrik took a cup, too, and filled it a quarter with coffee and then added three quarters milk and a spoon of sugar. He was not the biggest coffee enthusiast, but with enough milk he could taste the appeal. He sat down on the little table close to Anteo.

  “What are you reading there?” he asked.

  Anteo, in response, turned the magazine over. It was an article about the number of non-mages installing mage-exclusive software on their computers.

  “So there’s non-mages who’ve tried to use the Portal browser?” Jeldrik asked.

  “Tons,” Anteo exclaimed. “Which is surprising, isn’t it? I mean, the software can be downloaded by anyone, but the official website literally has only the button to download the software, no heading, no text, no nothing. There must be a bunch of weirdos out there who just like to take the risk of installing random software.”

  Jeldrik shrugged wide-eyed to express his confusion and sipped on his coffee. Then he said: “Maybe the software landed on another website somehow. Aren’t there websites that accumulate software from different places?”

  “True, they exist. But I haven’t really started reading the article, so maybe they even mention exactly that.”

  Jeldrik saw that as a hint to leave Anteo alone. “Oh! Yes, of course. I’ll let you read!”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Anteo expressed quickly. “No need to leave.”

  “Are you sure?” Jeldrik had half risen from his chair.

  “I am, sit down!” Anteo grinned. “Where have Gabriel and you been after lunch, by the way?”

  Jeldrik was uncertain how much he was allowed to say and hesitated for a second.

  “If you’re not allowed to say, don’t worry.” He smiled and looked back into his magazine.

  “No, it’s fine,” exclaimed Jeldrik and Anteo put his magazine away and sat down next to him. “An ABA member has been murdered. We found the body. It was pretty brutal.” Jeldrik’s nausea returned slightly when the picture of the maimed corpse came back into his mind.

  “Oh shit, I’m sorry, Jeldrik!” Anteo put a hand on Jeldrik’s shoulder. “Didn’t they let you go home for today?”

  Jeldrik was touched my the concern in the other man’s voice. “Tobias said I could leave, but Gabriel had told me at the crime scene that he wants to talk with me when he’s back in the office.”

  “God, that man can be strict sometimes. He should cut you some slack.” Anteo leaned back on his chair and shook his head. “If it becomes too much, just let me know, maybe I can help.”

  “Thanks, Anteo, that’s really nice of you!”

  Jeldrik must have sounded a tad surprised, because Anteo started laughing and said: “Does ‘nice’ not suit me?”

  “No, that wasn’t –” Jeldrik was searching for words. “I just really appreciate that.” He felt himself blush and got up. “I should probably get back to what I was doing.”

  “Oh, alright.” Did Anteo sound slightly disappointed? “Talk to you later then?”

  “Sure!”

  They smiled at each other and Jeldrik left the kitchen, feeling dumb. He sat back down on his desk and forced himself to focus on his research.

  Before he was able to read a single word, the office door opened again and in came Gabriel, Helma and Kordian. Helma and Gabriel were deep in conversation, all three looking very angry. Anteo cam out of the kitchen.

  “What’s wrong with you three?” he asked.

  “The MMS is what’s wrong!” exclaimed Kordian harshly and disappeared in the kitchen. A slight wave of panic swept over Jeldrik at the sound of that acronym. Helma and Gabriel hat finished their conversation and Helma knocked on Tobias’s door. Gabriel approached Jeldrik.

  “Let’s go to my office. I promise it won’t take long and then you can leave.”

  Gabriel fell into his chair behind his desk and Jeldrik sat down on the chair in front of it. He looked around the room unobtrusively while his supervisor sighed heavily and rubbed over his face. He looked very tired all of a sudden.

  “Do you remember the carving I pointed out when we entered Argon’s apartment?”

  Jeldrik nodded and was about to recount – with a hint of pride – the results of his research, when Gabriel spoke again.

  “It wasn’t ours.”

  “Not – ours? The carving wasn’t done by the DMCI?”

  “No.”

  It dawned on Jeldrik. “The MMS!”

  “Correct. The Ministry of Magical fucking Security. I should’ve guessed they were interested in this case.”

  “What happened?”

  “They arrived less than five minutes after you’d left. I’d luckily taken some photos before they came in and basically told me to fuck off.”

  “So Kordian and Helma couldn’t even see the body?”

  “Not one second.”

  Jeldrik realised that he felt disappointed. “I guess that means there’s no case for us.”

  Gabriel looked up at the intern and a smile appeared on his lips for a fracture of a second. “No case for us, no.”

  They were silent for a while, until Jeldrik spoke again.

  “Why is the MMS so interested in this murder? They didn’t seem to care with the assaults that happened before? And who exactly was this Argon anyway?”

  “To answer your last question first, I’m not exactly sure how Argon was involved in the ABA. But I assume he was an outspoken member, if – and that’s a big if of course – this crime is connected to the movement. Since he was the first murder, he must have been important enough to start with. Let’s just hope we won’t see any similar cases in the near future!” Gabriel sighed. “And to your first question, I have a theory,” said Gabriel slowly. “I would, in fact, be very surprised if anything about this case will land in the news.”

  Jeldrik frowned. “A murder like this one?”

  “I believe that the MMS is not trying to solve this murder – or if so, without any publicity.”

  “They’re trying to cover up the murder, you mean?” Jeldrik’s heart skipped a beat and he had unintentionally started to whisper, which made Gabriel grin slightly in amusement. He played along and leaned forward over the desk.

  “Yes, Jeldrik.” Then he leaned back and became more serious again. “I think they’re trying to hush this up so the ABA doesn’t gain any sympathy from the public.”

  Jeldrik thought for a second. “You think the risk for that is so high? From what I can tell, the ABA is pretty much hated by most.”

  “I think it’s a risk the MMS is not willing to take. But as I said, it’s a theory. And although the whole situation bugs me, we have enough other open cases that deserve our attention.”

  The case at the watch shop that Jeldrik was allowed to work on, where someone had managed to breach the magical protection charms and stolen a ton of expensive watches, had suddenly lost a lot of its former appeal.

  “It’s still a shame,” he said out loud and couldn’t prevent his voice from sounding a tad sulky.

  “It’s good that you’re eager for new cases,” said Gabriel. “But everyone needs our help. Even owners of watch shops,” he added with a smile and raised brows. Jeldrik felt himself blush.

  “Can I ask one more question about the murder?”

  “You can.”

  “If the teardrop rune was from the MMS, what charms have we used to surveil that place?”

  “We’ve used the exact same, but we usually carve runes in more subtle places so nobody can come and destroy it.”

  “Has the MMS done that before?”

  “They have.” Gabriel sounded annoyed again.

  “I did a bit of research on that rune by the way,” Jeldrik exclaimed quickly. He did not want to be responsible for his supervisor’s bad mood.

  “Did you?” Gabriel’s face brightened a bit. He seemed pleased with Jeldrik’s initiative.

  “Yes. I was curious. Why isn’t it taught at school? It seems pretty helpful and harmless enough.”

  “Oh, it is totally harmless. The worst that can happen is that you do a too good job and will continue to be aware of people entering that home after you’ve already moved out.” He chuckled. “But if you’re really good like Martha – our rune expert you haven’t met yet, she’s on vacation –, you can suppress that awareness at your will. And luckily so, otherwise Martha could not enjoy her vacation right now. Oh, and to answer your question: What mage runes are taught at school hasn’t made a drop of sense in a long time. Don’t get me started.”

  Another, more comfortable, silence. Then: “How are you, Jeldrik?”

  Jeldrik looked up and saw genuine concern in Gabriel’s eyes.

  “I am okay. It still feels very surreal. And I’ve been feeling sick in my stomach,” he added without thinking. Then he worried Gabriel would think him not fit for the job if he seemed to weak. But Gabriel nodded sympathetically and leaned forward on his desk.

  “That’s how it feels for many. I felt pretty much the same. I vomited directly at the crime scene when I saw my first corpse. My boss back then wasn’t too happy.” He chuckled again. “It might feel less surreal tomorrow. Do you have someone to talk to at home? I remember that I was scared to death alone in my apartment the first night.”

  “I have someone, yes.”

  “That’s good.” Gabriel nodded strongly. “You should go home and relax. If you don’t feel well tomorrow, you don’t have to come to the office either. Just let me know in the morning.”

  “Thank you, Gabriel!” Jeldrik, for the second time today, felt touched by another person’s compassion. He stood up, said good buy to his supervisor and left the room. Before leaving the office, he stuck his head in the kitchen door where Kordian, Helma and Anteo were sitting on the little kitchen table, drinking their coffees.

  “I’m off!”

  “Call any of us if you feel like shit,” Helma exclaimed. And after he had left the building, he could only hope that these people would become his real colleagues at some point.