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27. Magic

A defeated cry from a tall, curly haired technician and a victorious cheer from a cat-shifting witch were heard all over the empty classroom. All furniture have been pushed aside, old radio is turned up high, and door is locked.

Today is the day we are going to confirm whether or not my hypothesis is true. My hypothesis is that Zander has magic again, despite the special cuffs that Florencia had put on him. There is a follow up question on how he has magic, but right now the important thing is to confirm whether or not his magic is back or not.

We've chosen a different classroom for today. We needed a room that's a bit bigger than our usual hideout, and so Zander brought us to a room where the young sacred beings used to practice not just sword fighting, but dueling; attack and defense with magic. It's a perfect room for our experiment.

We have not really started yet though. Because this room was used for sword fighting practice, there are a few swords, real ones, that decorate it. For the past hour, Zander and Orion have been dueling with swords. It's not as nice looking and big as the swords from the Lord of the Rings, but it's definitely heavy. I can barely hold it with two hands. I did hold it long enough to reenact Eowyn's 'I am no man' scene though. After that, I gave the bronze sword to Orion and sat down on the floor and opened a back of plain potato chips. I need to find whoever's in charge of groceries and tell them to get better snacks.

Orion actually isn't terrible with swords. I know Zander has experience, so no matter how impressive he is with a sword, it's not surprising. Orion actually lasted for a while in their duels. They just finished round three. Zander won in all of them, but Orion was able to get some hits too. As they went for another round, I busied myself by doodling the two boys in the notebook where I'm supposed to right down my observations for Zander.

"Is that what you think I look like?" Zander appeared beside me fifteen minutes later, looking down at the notebook. "I don't know whether to be offended or be relieved that your doodle of me is way better than doodle version of Orion. Why does he have an octopus on his head?"

"That's....that's his hair."

Zander looked at Orion, who is currently chugging down cold water. His shirt had come off after their second round, sweat dripping from his forehead, while Zander is in the similar condition, except he chose to keep his shirt. I told Zander to take his shirt off as well, so his sweat does not stick to his clothes and feel icky. That only got me a "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" and a stupid smirk. "I'm impressed, Long Man. How do you know how to sword fight?"

"It's the same as swinging lightsabers. That, I practiced a lot."

The witch's mouth dropped. "It's not the same at all! Never mind. I am no longer impressed. You actually sucked a lot. I was going easy on you. Amateur."

Orion gave a chuckle.

"If you're both finished wasting time," I gave the two of them an exasperated look. "Can we get on with our main assignment? Zander?"

The said boy raised a brow. "I'm your main assignment? Oh, Astoria. I'm blushing."

I put an empty drinking glass on a table in front of us. "Let's start with your telekinesis first. Make this float."

"Yeah. Use the force." Orion commented, standing next to me.

"Just because you said that, I will not." Zander crossed his arms. "Also, I cannot."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I'm shy." He replied sarcastically. "Oh, and there's also these." The waved his wrists in front of my face.

I shook my head and took his wrists. "Zander, you know you've done magic even with these cuffs." I ran my thumb and index fingers over his wrists.