Work Text:
One of Melissa’s earliest memories- one that Milo doesn’t share, as he was slightly younger- is her father shaking her awake in the middle of the night. “Melissa? Melissa, sweetheart, we need to go now.”
“Why?” Melissa is picked up and carried out. She notices Milo’s mom and dad, his dad carrying him. Sara has the dog under one arm, and a bundle tucked under her other arm. “Morning!” She waves at them. Milo waves back, yawning.
“It’s still night, Melissa.” She is carried outside and placed in a rickety wooden cart. “The mage hunters are coming.”
“Mage hunters?” Melissa squirms about in her dad’s lap.
“Duck your head down, sweetie.” Someone pushes her down gently, one of the other adults. She goes to sit back up, frowning indignantly, but her dad pushes her back down, making his serious face. She follows instructions. Everyone seems really serious, not happy about something.
“Mage hunters are bad guys. They don’t like us because we can do magic.” Milo’s mom.
“But why?” Melissa blinks. “Whats wrong with magic?” She hasn’t figured out what type of mage she is, but she’s really excited. Everyone she knows and loves can do magic. Why would anyone not like that?
“Nothing, they just think that there is.” Her dad ruffles her hair. “We need to be really, really quiet how, ok? You and Milo and Sara are going to play a game, it’s called the Quiet Game. You need to be completely silent. You lose if you make a noise, ok?”
———
Milo and Melissa toddle down the street, hand in hand. With all of the adults, and Sara, busy, they have been sent to get rations. They take the job very seriously, and with a sense of pride. They aren’t usually supposed to go anywhere without at least one of the adults. Just in case. They are very young, but they know that people don’t like them. Because they’re mages.
Milo pulls Melissa out of the way of a falling bucket. “Whoa!” He exclaims, giggling.
They are in an alleyway now. They go to step out, but someone steps in front of them. They jump. “Hey, kids, don’t worry.” The man holds his hand up. Milo studied him carefully, a reminder from his parents ringing in his ears. But he doesn’t look like a mage hunter. “My name is William. What are your names?”
“Milo Murphy and Melissa Chase!” Milo smiles. “We need to go, we’re very busy.” Even if someone isn’t a mage hunter, they’re not supposed to talk to them a lot. Even not-mage hunters don’t like them.
“Just one second.” The man crouches a bit, studying them. “I need to tell you a secret, a big important one. But you need to tell me one first, ok? Are you two mages?”
Milo and Melissa look at each other. They’re not supposed to tell people that, not ever. Their parents said it very seriously, very sternly. “No.” Melissa says. “Ewww. Mages are gross.” That sounds like the sort of thing a not-mage might say.
“Mages are naughty and we’re not naughty.” Milo agrees. Although he isn’t very good at pretending, not as good as Melissa, he does try.
The man looks a bit annoyed. And then his hand shoots out to hold Milo’s wrist. He holds it a bit too tightly, squeezes a bit roughly. “I’m gonna ask again, ok kiddies? Are you mages?”
“Let go of him!” Melissa snaps, stomping her tiny foot. Milo tries pulling away, but the man squeezes it harder. It hurts a lot now, actually.
“Calm down, little firecracker. It’s an easy question.” The man says. “You’re not supposed to lie to adults. That’s very naughty.” He squeezes even harder, tugging a little on Milo’s arm. He squeaks.
Melissa doesn’t even think. She just thrusts her arms forward, and flames burst out of her tiny hands. Immediately, she feels like she stepped right into a fireplace. Not in a bad way, it doesn’t hurt. But she feels hot all over, like if you could sit in a fireplace without it burning you. She kinda likes that feeling. She feels giddy.
“Melissa, we need to go!” Milo grabs her arm. She immediately runs with him. It feels like someone threw a bucket of water over her. Looking behind, she can see the guy panicking, his clothes burning. “Stop, drop and roll!” Milo offers.
They spend a while running around the city, avoiding both that guy and Murphy’s Law. They forget about the rations until they finally get home. “Sorry, mom.” Milo says. “We got into trouble.”
“What happened?” She looks them over. Her eyes are quickly drawn to the bruise on Milo’s wrist. Bruises aren’t unusual for her son, he is always covered in a patchwork of them. But that bruise is clearly a from hand.
“A guy asked if we were mages, and when we said no he grabbed me. Melissa set his coat on fire.” Milo says, letting his mom take a gentle hold of his hand to examine the bruise. “But he didn’t look like a mage hunter.”
His mom sighs. “Some people will want to hurt you even though they’re not mage hunters. That’s why you need to be so careful, ok? Be careful and stick together. Look after each other.” She keeps making a serious face for a few moments, then smiles at Melissa. “You’re an elemental then! Just like your dad.”
Melissa beams proudly. She tries tapping her hands together, and a tiny flame appears. Even doing that makes her feel like she is on fire, although the feeling fades away much more quickly. She feels too cold when it fades away. And a funny squirmy feeling accompanies the cold. “Do you think I hurt that guy?”
Milo’s mom crouches. “Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. But it’s ok. It’s not nice that we have to fight, but we do. It’s ok to hurt people if you need to.”
She takes both of their hands. Her hand is really cold. Or maybe Melissa’s is just really warm? “Come on, let’s go tell your dad.”
———
Around Milo and Melissa, bits of wood and metal fall from the sky like dangerous rain. Some of the wood is on fire, just to add insult to injury. And they are injured, both of them.
“That was fun!” Milo exclaims, staggering to his feet and holding his hand out to help Melissa.
“My head hurts.” She rubs it. It hurts even more when she touches it. She removes her hand and squeaks. “Milo, there’s blood!”
“Oh!” Milo rushes around to have a look. He takes a wad of fabric out of his backpack and presses it down on the sore bit. She winces, but tries to be brave. Milo’s always brave. And her dad says that mages have to be brave. “Hold that there, we’d better get home fast.”
“Hey, kids.” A voice makes them jump. They turn to see a mage hunter, which makes them jump again. Mage hunters are bad. Mage hunters want to hurt them. Mage hunters killed her mom, and would kill her too if they could. But this mage hunter doesn’t look like she wants to kill them. Her eyes are drawn to Melissa’s head. “That looks nasty.”
Melissa steps back. “We’re not supposed to talk to strangers.” She says, a practised excuse.
“I’m a mage hunter, honey, don’t worry.” This hunter doesn’t have a sword, and she isn’t yelling or calling them gross. They’re still both scared of her. Of course they are, she’s a mage hunter! And mage hunters are mean. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Melissa shakes her head roughly, stepping back even further. “No, I need to go home.”
“I’ll take you home, I don’t want to leave you alone with that head injury.” The mage hunter steps closer, reaching for her. Melissa panics. She throws out her hand, and a gust of wind knocks the hunter over.
The mage hunter gasps. And suddenly, looking down at the children, her entire demeanour changes. Her face morphs into something cold and cruel. Scary. Now she looks as scary as she actually is. She lunges to grab Melissa, reaching for the iron cuffs on her belt. “Got you, you wicked little brat.”
Milo throws himself in front of Melissa. He knows that people don’t like mages, he has heard them talking about it. But he hates hearing someone say that to his friend! A funny feeling comes over him. Like something is touching him all over, kinda tight and squeezing but in a good, safe way. He likes the feeling. He can’t really see or hear anything, everything sounds like there is a thick wall between it and him.
“Milo, we need to go!” But he can hear one thing. Melissa’s voice. And she sounds stressed, so he lets her pull him out of the safe bubble. They run. “You made a pink glowy shield thing and when she tried to hit you she couldn’t!”
“Oh, I did magic!” Milo exclaims, surprised. “That’s so cool!”
“She’s still following us!”
“Let’s take a right!”
When they get back to the safe house, it’s quite late. “What happened?” Melissa’s dad asks, checking head over.
“I did magic!” Milo beams. “I made a magic shield!”
“A mage hunter tried to take us.” Melissa adds.
“Oh.” Melissa’s dad pats Milo on the head, and Melissa on the shoulder because her head still really hurts. “I’m sorry that happened when we weren’t there. But I’m glad that you two looked after each other.”
That’s the rule that both of them follow the most. That’s the most important rule. Look after each other. Protect each other. They have been doing it as long as they can remember. They will keep doing it until one of them can’t anymore.
———
Once they were in a building, someone’s house that they are staying in. Someone they could trust. Someone they thought they could trust.
Milo and Melissa are woken by yelling. Sara is already awake, standing at the door and listening. “What’s going on?” Milo asks, rubbing his eyes. “Do we need to go?” They regularly have to run away in the dead of night. It’s not even surprising, although it can be scary. Sometimes he peeks out of the cart and sees fire and metal and hears yelling. Sometimes they can’t even take the cart, they just have to run and hide.
“I dunno.” Sara’s eyebrows are furrowed. “Get ready, just in case.”
But when the adults come in, they don’t tell them to run. They tell them to hide. “You three, in that cupboard.” Milo’s mom, unusually short and sharp. “Stay in there until someone knocks like this.” Tap tap taptap tap “Ok? It’s really, really important that you stay in there and you stay really, really quiet. No matter what you hear, you need to stay hidden. It’s very important.”
Milo and Melissa nod immediately. They’re very used to confusing and slightly scary instructions. Milo’s mom turns her attention to Sara next. “Look after them, ok sweetie? And if we… just look after them.” She hugs each of them, unusually tightly. Lingering for a moment, before pushing them into the cupboard.
The cupboard is small, and filled with things, so they are all squashed against each other. Melissa opens her mouth to ask a question, but Sara puts a finger on her mouth.
So they sit in silence, squished into each other, waiting in the dark. They hear noises downstairs. Shouting? Shouting. And crashes, and various destructive sounds. Sara takes each of their hands and squeezes.
They are all scared, and confused. They want to get out of the cupboard. But Milo’s mom said to stay put, and they all know that they need to follow the adults’ instructions no matter how confusing or scary they are.
When they hear what sounds like a pained yell, they all jump, jostling against each other. “Tha-“ Milo is cut off by Sara putting a hand over his mouth. She knows exactly what he was going to say. That sounded like their dad. Like he was in serious pain, like he is seriously hurt. Her heart pounds, so loudly that she can hardly hear herself think. But she has to look after the kids.
After far, far, far too long, they hear footsteps getting closer. They tense, and Sara tries to wriggle to be closer to the door than the kids. She puts her arms out to protect them as much as she can.
Tap tap taptap tap
“Mom!” Milo wriggles out and opens the door, throwing himself into her arms. “What happened?! Is everyone alright?”
She puts a hand on his head and hugs him close, sighing. “Dad’s hurt, but he’ll be ok. We got rid of them. But we’d better head out, they’ll send reinforcements.”
Out in the cart, Milo snuggles up to his dad. He is holding his side, wincing whenever he moves. But he smiles when he sees the kids. “Hey there, guys. Well done.”
Sara’s heart doesn’t stop pounding for a long time after that.
———
Sometimes no amount of following the rules helps. Because being a mage is dangerous. Someone slams Melissa into the wall. She tries to make fire, but something touches her wrists. Something that burns, burns painfully and makes her squeak. It isn’t her fire, that can’t hurt her.
Iron.
A weakness to mages. If protecting each other is rule number one, rule number two is simply: “avoid iron.” It weakens them. Makes them feel sick and tired. Stops them from using their magic.
“Melissa!” Milo lunges towards her. But someone trips him, and he clatters roughly to the ground. Before he can get up, someone plants a foot into his back and digs in, hard. He yelps. He struggles and fights, but soon iron touches his wrists as well. It burns and burns, and no amount of wriggling will help.
They are hauled to their feet and, despite furious wriggling, are dragged to a nearby cart. The hunters aren’t gentle, shoving them and holding them with a bruising grip. They are practically tossed into the cart, then hauled up and slammed onto benches opposite each other.
Milo really tries to fight, and when he hears a hunter yelp in surprise he knows that he manages to get a good kick in. But in return for the kick, one of them hits him in the stomach with what seems to be a baton. He doubles over, wincing.
“Leave him alone!” Melissa yells, despite not really being in a better position.
“Shut up, you unnatural little freak, or I’ll really give you something to complain about.” The hunter smacks at her with his baton.
The hunter holding Milo grabs his arms and, despite his struggling, raises them above his head. His already shackled hands are now shackled to a bar above his head. This is clearly made with adults in mind, so he is pulled up uncomfortably, meaning that he has to crouch awkwardly rather than sit.
He sees them doing the same thing to Melissa. Normally he would feel a tug to make a shield, to protect her, a tug that he follows so often that it’s natural. But the tug isn’t there, which feels really weird. He doesn’t like this at all.
The door slams shut. Melissa exhales. “Ok, so, all in all this situation could be better.” Her voice shakes a little. Mage hunters torture the mages they capture. They burn them at the stake.
“Yeah.” Milo concedes. He looks around the small cart. The bench and bar go all the way around, clearly meant to hold many more mages. But right now, it’s just them. Two children, restrained and alone.
He takes a deep breath. “It’s ok! We’ll get out of here. Life has a strange way of working out, after all.” He says. In the meantime, he reaches his foot over and just manages to brush Melissa’s foot. He can only give her a tiny amount of comfort, but he will give her any that he can.
“Have you noticed that it’s kinda quiet?” He says after a while. “No crashes or explosions or anything.”
“Too quiet.” Melissa agrees. “Do you think that iron disables Murphy’s Law, like it does to magic?”
“Maybe.” Milo doesn’t like that idea.
Finally, the cart stops. The door opens, and two more people are bundled in. Kids, who looking to be the same age as them. A dark haired boy with glasses, and a brown haired girl in pink. They struggle, but are soon shackled to the railing.
“Hi, I’m Milo! Abjurer” Milo says, smiling despite the situation. “And that’s Melissa. Elemental.”
“Amanda, enchanter.” The girl says, polite despite the worry creasing her face. “And Bradley’s an illusionist.”
The cart falls into silence for a while. Everyone is preoccupied by their own fears. And their own pain. The iron never gets any less painful. In fact, it gets even more painful, as the existing burns are burned by it. Milo tries wriggling again, which didn’t help the last dozen times and doesn’t help now.
He takes a deep breath. He’s a mage, and a Murphy. He can get everyone out of this. “Ok, when they come back, whoever they unchain first needs to attack them and get the key away. That’ll probably be Amanda, she’s closer to the door. I assume that you can fight them?”
Amanda nods, looking both curious and worried.
“So if you unchain Melissa first, she can handle the guards. I can make a shield so they won’t be able to get us, and Bradley, you could make an illusion to distract them so we can run?” Milo suggests.
“This could go so wrong.” Bradley groans, slumping forwards until the shackles yank him up and he shifts again. “It’s not a good idea.”
“Neither is letting ourselves get taken into prison.” Melissa points out. “I’m up for it, Milo.”
“Me too.” Amanda says, then turns to nudge Bradley with her foot. “Come on, let’s do it.”
Bradley groans even louder. “Fine.”
———
They duck behind a wall, all breathing heavily. “Are they gone?” Amanda asks in a hushed voice.
“They’re gone!” Melissa exclaims, bending over with her hands on her knees. “Whoa, that was intense.” She scratches the iron burns on her wrists and arms. They look nasty, she is sure that they will scar. Their parents have iron burns on their arms, she’s seen them. She wasn’t ready for how much it would hurt.
“We’d better get back.” Milo says. “What about you guys?”
“Runaways.” Amanda replies. “We’ll find somewhere safe to stay for the night, and move on in the morning.”
“You could come stay with us.” Melissa offers. “We always have mages staying.”
Back home, their parents immediately pull them into tight hugs. Milo relaxes into a hug with his mom, dad, and Sara. His dog barks and presses against his leg. “I’m so glad that you’re ok!” His mom exclaims, squeezing tightly.
Melissa’s dad is even more worried, even more protective. She is squished against him. “Thank the gods that you’re alright, I thought…”
“We’re fine.” Melissa reassures him, rubbing her wrists. “It was scary, but we got out.”
“We looked after each other.” Milo adds. His own wrists sting, hurting much more than any of the many burns he has had over the years. But he doesn’t feel bad. He knows that they can handle mage hunters.
Being a mage is dangerous. But he wouldn’t want to be anything else.