“We were protected, we grew knowing that as long as we stayed within the borders we’d live. None of us expected our guardians who were so much stronger than any of us to fall.”

  – Excerpt from the journal of Falorian Silverwood

  Azalea sat in her office. She really wished this job didn’t require so much time spent indoors. The pay raise had been wonderful, but she missed all the time she had spent surrounded by nature. She still did plenty of field work, but there was so much more paperwork. She pushed herself away from her oak desk, turned off the computer, and gathered up her papers. Sending things electronically would also have made her feel better, but everything had to be recorded physically in case the computers crashed. She had sent a memo to her boss just last week about switching to hemp paper rather than tree-based paper. She probably sounded like a tree-hugger as humans called them, but Azalea didn’t know a single Earth Witch that wasn’t.

  Azalea walked to the door of her office, the pay-raise had included getting her own office, her low-heeled shoes clicked lightly on the hardwood floor. One of the best things about working for a witch run organization was that everything was made from natural things, hardwood instead of linoleum or that icky carpet made more from plastic than fabric these days, wood desks, glass mugs, biodegradable water cups, and no fluorescent lighting anywhere. Plastic and metal didn’t harm witches in any way, nor did it harm any of the sentient races, but it made one uncomfortable using something that would harm the basis of your powers.

  While Azalea wore heels, she refused to wear a skirt to work. Many of her male coworkers would take any excuse to check out their female coworkers. Some of them checked out other males instead but were more discreet about it. Straight males had an interesting reaction to being checked out by another male but had no problem doing the same to a female. Why they thought the females felt any different about being checked out like they were a tasty piece of meat she couldn’t understand.

  She walked past all the cubicles, she’d had one of her own just a month ago, towards the boss’s office. The boss was thankfully a straight female, which meant she not only understood how Azalea and the other females of the workplace felt about the male behaviour, but she also wasn’t going to check out Azalea more than a brief glance. Azalea ignored the squeaking of chairs that meant several of her coworkers had moved so they could watch her walk. Beauty really was more curse than gift.

  “Here’s the last of the paperwork on my end today.” Azalea said as she entered Lita’s office. “Since you wanted to review it personally, I thought I’d drop it off before I headed out.”

  “Thank you, Aza. Just set it in the basket. Unfortunately, I’ll have to get to it later.” Lita responded not even looking up from her computer.

  “More meetings today?”

  “Would you believe that Patrick has decided that we’re to have weekly report meetings?”

  “Sounds like he’s worried over something again.” Azalea said as she set her papers in the basket.

  “Patrick is always worried. If he wasn’t one of the best witches in the nation, I’d tell him off for it.” Lita shook her head and looked up from her screen long enough to share a smile with Azalea.

  “I’d trust his instincts; his mother was a full clairvoyant. All of his siblings have been known to have a touch of their mother’s ability. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does as well, never mind the fact that he’s male. It wouldn’t be the first time in our history that a male had a touch of that ability.”

  “You’re right as always Aza. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that you have a touch of more than just the elemental magics.”

  Azalea laughed. “My mother said the same thing despite my testing results. I get tested every few years to appease her, nothing has shown up.”

  “Not everything shows up in those tests. Mild clairvoyance doesn’t, nor do any of the minor versions of the mind abilities.”

  “Well, I don’t hear voices, my dreams are normal, and while I have good instincts they’re nothing unusual. I’m twenty-five, if something doesn’t manifest in the next year it never will.”

  “Your logic brain is always a surprise. Most earth witches are more emotional.”

  “I’m no more or less emotional than anyone else, I just learned long ago the importance of being practical.” Azalea gave a slight wave to her boss and headed back to her own office.

  Just as she got to the door the whole building began to shudder. She braced herself in the doorway and sent her mind down to the earth below. What she saw shocked her enough to send her mind racing back to her body. Azalea didn’t stop shaking when the building finally did. She sank to the floor, pulled her knees to her chest and focused on breathing. She heard voices and vaguely saw that there was a cluster of people near her. They were asking questions her mind couldn’t process.

  “Aza.” A calming voice said beside her. Using as much focus as she could muster Azalea turned to the voice. Gyles was sitting beside her. She knew her eyes were panicked; she also knew that without that Gyles would have known something was very wrong. “I’m going to help you calm down.”

  Azalea nodded, giving him permission. She felt as his magic touched her, and as he slowly influenced her emotions. It allowed her heart rate to slow, and her breathing to become even. When she was finally able to get a full breath, her brain started working again. As she calmed down, she heard Lita ordering people back to their desks.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” Gyles asked.

  “The earth,” Azalea had to pause to take a deep breath to keep from panicking again. “Someone caused that.”

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  “What do you mean, someone caused the earthquake?” Gyles asked, he took care to speak calmly.

  Azalea nodded. “It didn’t come from the fault line.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The fault line wasn’t touched. This was caused purely by magic, they didn’t even use the fault line to make it easier.”

  “Can you tell me what the stability level of the fault line is now?”

  Azalea didn’t answer, she just sent her mind back down to the earth. She shuddered as she came into contact with it. The earth had been violated. Somehow the fault line was untouched. They’d still have the earthquake they’d been expecting in a few weeks, but this one seemed to have completely avoided it. Azalea verbalized her findings. When she pulled herself out of the earth and back into her body she began to cry. Gyles pulled her into a hug, using his touch to strengthen his ability to sooth her. It didn’t help, this was a purely magical reaction. He seemed to understand that quickly. He pulled back but kept a hand on her shoulder. He was doing his best to keep her from hysterics. After a moment Azalea scrambled to her feet and rushed the garbage can. She got there just in time and heaved. Her body was trying to purge itself from the traces of that dark ugly magic she’d touched.

  “I’ll forever be grateful I’m not an elemental witch.” She heard Lita say from behind her. The older woman had come to help keep her hair out of her face while she puked. “You’re better at sensing disturbances, and you know the instant someone near you uses dark magic, but you react with your mind and body. It’s worse the more powerful you are too.”

  Azalea had a feeling these words were only partly for her. There must be members of the office who thought she was weak for reacting like this. She’d like to see how they felt with their mind surrounded by that horror. That magic had more than a taint of the worst kind of blood magic, it was fuelled entirely by pain and horrors. What or who had caused this was psychotic at best. Azalea’s stomach heaved again as she thought about the fact that chances were this wasn’t going to be the last time she felt the touch of this person’s magic. There were too few witches with her level of elemental magic, and even fewer who could truly bond with the elements.

  Lita sent her home as soon as her stomach settled. Azalea wasn’t going to be any good to anyone for the rest of the day. Lita and Gyles knew this. Azalea was just glad they hadn’t expected her to make it home on her own, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to take the bus. She looked over at Gyles. He was an empath as well as having minor elemental magic, wind. His skill in using the combination of the two made him more powerful a magic user than either would have made him alone. Azalea could feel him putting out a soothing aura to keep her calm.

  “Thank you, Gyles.” Azalea said.

  “It’s not like I could do anything else.” Gyles replied. “Not when I knew you were in no shape to get yourself home.”

  “While Empathy has to suck, it’s sure nice for those of us who consider you a friend.” Azalea said smiling. “Not having to explain things that we don’t have words for is a definite plus.”

  Gyles laughed. “You’re probably one of the few who thinks that. Most people get creeped out by it.”

  “Well, most people are unnerved by abilities they don’t fully understand.”

  “Probably why the two of us get along.” Gyles grinned.

  “Probably.” Azalea replied, returning his smile. Gyles wasn’t the first person she’d met who struggled with how people of all races reacted to those who were different. Azalea always made friends with those who didn’t quite fit in. It was probably one of the reasons her mother was sure there was something more than what the test results showed about Azalea's abilities. Those who were different, as well as victims tended to be drawn to her. Azalea just assumed it was her responsibility to both understand and protect. Her earth magic was the most powerful to be seen in well over a hundred years. Gyles pulled up in front of the apartment building where Azalea lived; it was old and made of brick and wood.

  “Thank you again.” Azalea said as she got out.

  “Anytime. Just remember to eat something soon.” Gyles replied.

  “I will.”

  Azalea closed the car door behind her and crossed the cement sidewalk to the door of her apartment building. She typed in her code and the door unlocked. After the earthquake Azalea didn’t feel comfortable using the elevator so she took the stairs up to the fourth floor. There were two more floors above her apartment. Azalea was glad she hadn’t had a chance to get soft from all the time spent in the office or the stairs would have out done her. As it was, she was incredibly tired by the time she unlocked the door to her apartment.

  Closing the door behind her Azalea felt a wave of relief at being surrounded by familiar and comfortable things. Not that the office wasn’t familiar, but here in her apartment she was surrounded by plants and other objects that gave her a sense of peace she only found here or out in nature. The stress of the situation earlier finally left her and the tightness in her chest eased.

  She immediately went for the fridge. Gyles was correct in telling her to eat. She’d puked up everything in her stomach, had a magical reaction, an emotional reaction, and had used her magic. If she didn’t eat now she would pass out, and likely be sick for a week. She remembered learning the hard way how important it was to eat after using magic. The last time she’d made that mistake she’d been feverish for a week.

  She pulled the ingredients for a sandwich out of the fridge and cupboards. She quickly put it together and started eating before she’d put anything away. After she’d put the last of it away her phone started to ring. The caller ID showed “W.W.W.” Azalea quickly answered. If the World Wide Witches headquarters was calling her she better not let it go to voicemail. They might be where she worked, but she still didn’t usually get a call from headquarters about anything.

  “Ms. Azalea Rell?” a voice said from the other end of the line.

  “Speaking.” Azalea answered.

  “Mr. Fraxinus would like you to report to his office at your earliest convenience tomorrow.” The woman’s voice continued.

  “Not today?” Azalea asked.

  “No. He specifically said you are to rest for the remainder of today and report sometime tomorrow. He also said you are not to rush in here tomorrow morning. You’re not to come into the office until after nine o’clock at the earliest. He said to let yourself recover and only come in once the effects have worn off.”

  Patrick was definitely clairvoyant. They hadn’t ever worked close enough for him to know that she’d try to rush back to the office no matter how she was feeling.

  “Alright, I’ll come to his office tomorrow then.” Azalea said.

  “Perfect. Don’t worry about what time you arrive. I’ve already sent out emails to everyone he’s scheduled to meet with that there has been a situation that may cause him to have to leave the meeting early or arrive late. Mr. Fraxinus was clear that this was more important than his meetings. Between you and I, I think it’s related to one of his hunches. As is his warning to rest before coming in.”

  “I’ll take it very seriously then.” Azalea smiled. If Hazel, Patrick’s assistant believed it was the case she was probably right. She’d been working with Patrick for over two decades now. Not that you’d know it to look at her, she looked Azalea’s age, but witches aged a little differently than humans. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  The call ended and Azalea shook her head in confusion. What was going on? She didn’t really understand what had happened or what the conversation she’d just had meant. Obviously, what had happened was big, big enough for the leader of the World Wide Witches Association to want to talk to her in person as soon as she’d recovered enough to allow it. How she was supposed to relax with that hanging over her head she had no idea.