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Zack Underwood isn't a criminal.
Ok, he is a mage, but it isn't his fault! And he has been so good, so careful. Despite the urge, so strong it almost hurts, he never uses his magic. He can't help being a mage, but he refuses to use his abilities, he shuns that unlawful, ungodly part of him.
And he wears a cloak with an iron clasp. He doesn't like it, it makes him feel weaker, and it makes his chest feel tight. Not to mention the burns if he forgets and touches it. He always wears leather gloves for that reason. But it is necessary. It stops those mage hunter's swords from picking up on him. And it prevents any temptation.
He isn't like those other mages. He doesn't break the law. He doesn't hurt people. He doesn't flaunt his unnatural abilities around like a fancy brooch stolen from a plague infested town. He may be innately bad, but he is trying his best to be good. Other mages act like it is everyone's fault but their own that they are feared and hated. It is mages like that's fault that he has to live in fear when he doesn't act like them.
It is mages like those two in the square's fault, he thinks as he walks past. A boy and a girl, probably around his age. They are chained to the concrete block in the middle of the square, surrounded by curious, disgusted and furious onlookers. There are what looks like squashed, rotten fruits on the ground, the block and the children. And they aren't guilty at all- the girl scowls, and the boy looks almost mischievous. Like he knows something that no one else knows.
Those are the types of mages that the stories are about, the reason that there are laws. Wicked. They know their existence is an affront to the gods and they revel in it instead of showing the slightest ounce of shame. Instead of hiding it.
"These two-" A mage hunter is reading from a scroll. "-are guilty of theft, assault, heresy, and countless other crimes. Worst of all, their very existence is a crime. These two are guilty of arcane crimes- these two are mages."
"You make it sound so dramatic. You light a candle and you're guilty of arcane crimes." The girl says, grinning wickedly. "You aren't even going to tell them what we did?"
"They don't have enough paper for all of that." The boy retorts, also grinning. "I think the most recent one was-" The mage hunter kicks him. Hard. The boy doubles over, straining against his chains, but he is still grinning. "Ok, ok. If anyone's curious, I can make it my last words at my execution. They can't interrupt that."
Zack is drawn to come closer, a funny feeling in his chest. He feels disgusted, sure, but he also feels bad for the criminals. Chained up and humiliated and bruised. That's just empathy, he reminds himself. He reminds himself that they aren't like him. That they deserve it. That doesn't stop the feeling of sympathy.
"Oh, you think they're getting that far? What about your optimistic spirit?" The girl arches an eyebrow.
"You're right." The boy replies. "After all, life does have a strange way of working out."
As soon as those words leave his mouth, smoke fills the square. Thick, grey and heavy, making people cough and choke.
It doesn't make Zack cough. And while he can see it, he can see through it. So that means it is an illusion, made by another mage. So those mages in the square might escape!
He rubs his eyes and looks around. And sure enough, someone is cutting through the chains, helping out the mages. He goes to cry out, and then stops himself. If he tells everyone he can see through the illusionary smoke, he will reveal himself as a mage. And he won't get mercy for helping to recapture the evil mages.
Figures are sprinting through the smoke, pushing past people. But now the mage hunters know something is wrong, they are rushing through the crowds with their swords at the ready. Are they going to fight in the smoke? Someone is going to get killed! They could hit a civilian!
Ok, Zack is getting out of here. Right now, before things go from bad to worse. He pushes through the crowd in the opposite direction, desperate to get away. He just needs to get away.
Someone screams. A mage, hopefully.
He feels the urge to heal. He has felt that urge a lot, and always pushes it down. A light tug for a simple bruise, scrape or cut, a tug so strong it nearly pulls him over for a serious injury. He always ignores the urge. Those are temptations from the magic that he has to ignore. If he obeys the temptation, he is as evil, as disgusting, as guilty, as those kids in the square.
He is nearly out of the square when the smoke suddenly disappears. He turns around to see the two mages held at swordpoint against a wall. They are grabbed and shoved roughly against it, their hands chained together even as they struggle and fight.
They are mildly injured. The figure who helped them, a girl with dark brown hair, is quite badly injured. And as Zack suspected, some civilians were caught in it. Most are ok. Cuts, bruises, nothing serious. Some are worse off.
And then there is a little kid, who Zack feels the strongest tug to. He looks seriously injured, crumbled on the floor and crying. Zack creeps closer to see the blood, the wound. A mage hunter accidentally caught him with a sword, clearly.
This kid will die, he can tell. He just knows that wound is unsalvageable, the blood loss too severe. There is nothing anyone can do.
Anyone aside from Zack.
He could, he could heal the kid. It would be so simple. A touch, a thought. And the child would survive.
Would it be worth it? Would it be worth risking himself, giving into the temptation of the magic to become even more impure?
Surely the gods couldn't want him to leave a child to die. And even if they could... he can't. He has to do this.
He kneels down next to the kid and unbuckles his cloak, allowing it to fall away behind him. Then he touches his shoulder. A rush of warmth floods through him. It makes him feel giddy, sick, happy, disgusted, right. This is why he can never heal. Because whenever he does it makes him feel so good, he wants to do it again.
It doesn't take long. And even if it did, how would he know? The world shrinks around him until it is just him, the boy and the magic flowing through. He could stay in this bubble forever.
The wound finishes knitting together, the boy is back to a healthy colour. He sits up, touching the light coloured scar with trepidation. "Did you just..."
"Please." Zack's hand shoots out to grasp the child's hand, eyes pleading. This boy has every reason, every right, to scream for help. To tell everyone that Zack is a monster. He used magic on him without his consent.
The boy nods, taking Zack's other hand. "Thank you." He murmurs. Zack lets out a sigh of relief.
"That boy just healed that child!"
Zack freezes. He looks back to see someone pointing at him, eyes wide with horror. "He healed him with just his hands!"
"A mage!" He winces at the disgust in the man's voice.
"No! No, no, you're mistaken! I didn't do anything, he wasn't injured!" He cries out, desperate. No, no. After all of these years, after everything. This can't be happening.
"He was bleeding, I saw! Mage hunters! Mage hunters!"
The crowd closes in around Zack. He stares in horror, frozen. This can't be happening. No. No. No no no no no no.
"Run!" The boy he healed whispers. Zack shakes his head. He can't evade arrest, that will just make everything worse, he just needs to explain, then they'll realise he isn't bad. And even if he wanted to run, he couldn't. His legs are like twin blocks of ice, his head seems to be filled with smoke.
The mage hunters march up. Zack shrinks back in fear. Their swords glow and vibrate, marking him as a mage. He flinches at the noise, and he can't do anything but tremble as the hunters approach. One grabs each arm to haul him up. He hangs limply in their grip, too terrified to do anything else.
"This is the little mage? Thank you for reporting him, citizens. Rest assured, he will be swiftly and mercilessly brought to justice. Your efforts have led to one less impure piece of criminal scum wandering the streets." Hands dig tighter into his arms. He winces, screwing up his face. They drag him through the square, none too gently. It hurts, this hurts, he's scared, he wants to go home...
He just wanted to help a child. This wasn't supposed to happen.
———
Milo Murphy and Melissa Chase are criminals, and very proud of it.
There isn't anything better to be in a kingdom where your kind are hunted and killed simply for existing. As long as they can remember, Milo and Melissa have been on the run. Have been part of the magical underworld of the kingdom. Causing problems, doing crimes. Saving as many mages as possible.
And that is a lifestyle that comes with risks. Plenty of them. Every crime, heist, rescue, it puts their lives at risk. But that doesn't matter to them. After all, a caught mage is bound for death whether they committed the worst crimes known to humanity or were a law-abiding angel. So why not do some good?
The most recent plan was Amanda's, and it was brilliant. They would get caught on purpose, get themselves chained up in the square of the largest city in the kingdom. And then they would escape. How stupid would those arrogant, over dramatic mage hunters look when two mages escaped right under their noses? Brilliant.
Getting caught wasn't hard, and escaping shouldn't have been hard either. Milo would give the signal, Bradley create illusionary smoke, then Amanda could rush in, remove the chains and they could make a break for it.
Unfortunately, it isn’t going quite like that. Milo calls out the code word and the smoke appears, just as planned. Amanda runs in and frees them, and they sigh in relief as the horrible, burning iron chains are removed. Now they can do magic again, and that really helps out. They run through the crowd, but are soon met by the mage hunters.
The factor they had all forgotten to take into account was the lack of concern the mage hunters have for any lives, including ‘proper’ humans. As long as they get their mages, they don’t care who else gets hurt. Meanwhile, the kids would really rather not hurt any innocents, even if most of those innocents were baying for their blood and throwing rotten fruit.
This is especially a problem for Melissa, who uses elemental magic to fight- she finds it extremely difficult to be precise and avoid ‘splash damage’. So she has to hold back, and she does the most damage. Milo can only really knock back attackers and shield himself and Melissa from damage, and they’ve lost Amanda in the chaos.
They survive by the skin of their teeth for a while, getting closed and closer to the edge of the square. Once they’re there, they can disappear into the streets and run.
They don’t quite get that far. Suddenly Milo feels himself be slammed into the wall, feels iron touch his already burnt wrists. He tries to struggle, but whoever is holding him is much stronger. And his hands are chained with iron, so he can’t use his magic.
Glancing over shows him that Melissa is in a similar position, fighting against the guard holding her. Even without their magic, the two of them are putting up a pretty good fight. They hear grunts and yelps from the mage hunters, feel them stumble. But then a sword point is pressed into his back, a sharp warning, and he has to stop.
As they are dragged to the cart, they exchange a look, nerves showing for the first time. This mission was supposed to be easy. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
———
When they reach the prison cart, the door is already open. Zack looks inside to see the two kids from the square, their arms shackled above their heads. He tries to console himself with that- at least the actual criminals got caught- but somehow it doesn’t help at all.
“This one of yours?” One of the mage hunters taunts, shoving Zack forward into the cart. He winces as he stumbles over the step and ends up on the ground. “Oh get up.” He is yanking roughly upwards. His cooperation isn’t stopping them from treating him roughly.
“Not all mages know each other.” The girl says, a wicked grin on her face yet again.
“What a rude assumption.” The boy agrees, also grinning.
“I mean, you’d think that you don’t like us or something!”
The two mages start laughing. Zack stares at them. They’ve been arrested for arcane crimes, how are they laughing? Why are they taunting the hunters? He remembers the stories of mages not feeling fear, not feeling pain. He always discounted them because obviously he feels pain and fear. Maybe using magic saps you of those feelings.
He is sat on the bench opposite the mages, and his hands are shackled to the bar over his head. The iron burns, and he bites his lip to stop himself from crying out. And the pain doesn’t stop, it just gets worse, as the iron continues to burn the existing burns.
"Hey, you don’t need to do that." The boy says suddenly. "He’s a healer, he can’t attack you with his magic. And he isn’t resisting." Zack looks in shock at the boy, and sees concern and sympathy in his eyes. No longer taunting, no longer mischievous. Zack knows the kid is evil, but his kindness suddenly makes him want to cry.
"Trying to trick us? Very clever." The hunter actually tightens the chains, and this time Zack can’t hold back a whimper. "But you two are done this time, and so is your little friend."
"Wai-" Zack’s pleading is cut off by the door slamming shut. Leaving the three mages alone.
Zack slumps backwards, his arms held uncomfortably over his head. He just needs to wait for the trial, then he can prove that this is all a mistake. That he didn’t hurt anyone, that he’s a good mage.
"Ok Milo, what now?" The girl asks. The boy- Milo- shrugs as much as he can in his restraints.
Zack shuts his eyes and wishes that he could shut his ears too. Do they have to talk?
"Hey, healer, what’s your name?" The girl asks suddenly.
"Zack." He says quietly, not looking at her. "And don’t call me that."
"Zack?" The girl tilts her head to one side.
"No, what you called me before." Zack mutters.
"Healer? Oh. You’re one of those." The girl says. Zack doesn’t ask what that means, he doesn’t want to know.
They sit in silence for a while as the cart bumps under them. Then the boy speaks, looking at Zack with a cheerful smile entirely out of place. "Well I’m Milo, and she’s Melissa. Abjurer, elemental."
Zack nods.
"We aren’t sure where they’re taking us, we’ve definitely left the city. So we’re pretty sure we’re going to that mage prison, up north- heard of it?"
Zack nods again.
"It’s going to be much more difficult to escape from in there, and then the next time we’ll get to leave will be for our executions, so not ideal. We’ll have to make a break for it as soon as we get off of his bar." The boy lays out the plan casually, like Zack is a co conspirator. Like Zack is a criminal like him.
"Good luck with that." He says simply, cursing the tremor in his voice.
The boy tilts his head a bit, looking at him with wide, concerned eyes. "Aren’t you gonna come with us?"
"No, why would I? I’m not a criminal." Zack may be shaking, but he thinks the glower he fixes on them is pretty withering. "I am going to explain myself in court like a human being instead of committing crimes like a mage."
The mages exchange a look, not looking particularly withered. "You’re also a mage." The boy points out.
Zack winces at being directly accused. "Yes, but not like you. I’m a good mage. I’m not a criminal."
Another exchanged look. "You are, just because you’re a mage."
Zack’s eyes burn like the chains around his wrists. "No, I’m not. I don’t use my magic, I don’t get in trouble, I’m trying my best to be good."
Is that sympathy in the boy’s eyes? And then the girl speaks, and she just sounds scornful. "So how did you get caught then?"
"It was my fault, I… I used my magic to heal this kid, he got caught in the fight…" Zack looks down at the floor, the weight of that one split second decision now weighing on him. "I was stupid, but if I can just explain-"
"You used your magic to heal a dying child, that they nearly killed, and you think that you’re the bad guy? Gods above." Melissa spits. "The brainwashing in this kingdom is awful."
"I’m not brainwashed, you’re just… unholy. Wicked." Zack snaps.
The girl rolls her eyes. "You learn that in school?"
"Ye- no, I just know! It’s just basic morality." He argues.
"Basic morality that people like us deserve to be locked up and tortured and murdered just because of how we were born?" Milo asks.
Zack flinches. "No, I- we’re innately bad. We’re supposed to work to be better, not run around committing crimes for the hell of it!"
“We commit crimes for the hell of it? We commit crimes to survive, and to do good. You know how we got arrested the time before this?” Melissa scowls at him. He winces back, feeling like she could set him on fire with just her eyes, even when in iron. “We saved a group of mages from being burned at the stake. If that makes us innately bad, then I don’t want to be innately good.”
Zack looks at the ground, head spinning. When he looks up, Milo is looking at him with such gentle concern he wants to cry again. “I know it’s hard, when you’ve been taught your whole life that your magic makes you bad. But it doesn’t. And clearly you’re a good person; you saved that child, even when it risked your own safety. That’s not what someone ‘innately bad’ would do- that’s what a hero would do.”
Zack just stares. These two were supposed to be clearly, obviously evil. But the longer he talks to them, the harder he finds it to think that. He shakes his head roughly. “No, no. I’m not listening, you can’t trick me.”
Milo looks sad. Melissa furrows her brows. “I didn’t realise how bad it was, being a mage raised in normal society. How much goddamn self loathing you would learn.”
Zack does his best to ignore them, even as their words hit him. He realises that he has never spoken to another mage- or at least, never spoken to anyone he knew was a mage.
They’re so normal. Mischievous criminals, sure, but they get nervous, even frightened, they get hurt (he can see nasty iron burns not just on their wrists, but all over their arms) and they really seem to want to help him. What if they’re right? No, they can’t be. Surely not. They can’t be.
“Zack.” Milo interrupts his train of thought. “Zack, please just listen to us. You don’t have to like us, you don’t have to trust us, but you have to come with us. You’ll get killed if you don’t.”
Zack shakes his head, desperate now. He needs them to stop, he needs them to stop tempting him. “I won’t, I won’t, but if I help you, if I come with you, I’m a monster just like you.”
The girl barks a laugh. “We’re monsters? Just because we’re a bit different, we’re monsters. And not the people who burn us at the stake? Those mages we rescued, the youngest was only ten.”
Zack stares. No, that can’t be…
“And Milo was sugarcoating things a bit when he told you that you’ll get killed if you don’t escape with us. You’ll get tortured. That’s what they do if they capture us. They torture us.”
“What?!”
“We’ve always managed to escape before it got to that point, but we’ve met people it happened to. It’s brutal.” Melissa continues. Her eyes are dark and angry. “That’s monstrous, not being able to magically heal or make fire or shields.”
Zack’s eyes are wide, shocked.
“Zack, please. Do you really wanna die, or will you come with us and survive? I know it’s hard, but we can help you. I promise it’ll be alright.” Milo says.
Zack hesitates, everything is blurry and confusing. “I just… I just wanna go home.” He admits, tears finally leaking out of his eyes.
“I know. I know.” Milo soothes. “But you can’t. And you have to see, it’s not right that you can be torn away from your home and family because you helped a dying child.”
Zack shifts uncomfortably in his restraints, fear thudding through him. “I’ve always been taught…”
“I know what they teach you. I know what they’re like.” The anger on Milo’s face looks quite out of place. “But do you really think that the same people who burn people at the stake and torture people are teaching you the right lessons? I know you’re a good person, Zack. You saved a child even though you believed you were doing something wrong, even when you knew you were risking your own safety. I know that somewhere, deep down, you know that what you’ve been taught is wrong.”
The way Milo is looking at him, with his hopeful, kind, optimistic eyes, makes him want to say yes immediately.
“It’s an affront to the gods. Even if the mage hunters are… are wrong…” That takes effort to say, it burns his mouth on the way up even more than the iron is burning his wrists. “That doesn’t mean that they aren’t working off of the right principles.”
“Did it feel wrong?” Melissa asks. “To heal the boy?”
“Y… no. It didn’t. It felt good. It felt right.” Zack admits.
Melissa and Milo are watching him, very similar looks on their faces. Concern, hope. He has been taught his whole life that people like them are wicked, evil, monstrous. But he can’t believe that after talking to them. Now that he knows them.
And he can’t believe that the gods would hate them either.
Slowly, he nods. “Ok. I’m in.”
The smiles that break out on their faces are so large and infectious that he wants to smile back. The smile he manages is shaky and uncomfortable.
“We don’t expect you to be alright after one conversation.” Milo reassures. “But stick with us and we’ll help you, and you will be alright.”
Zack nods, and this time manages a slightly better smile. He can manage to stick with them.