"To the best of my knowledge, they're not mages, no.  ...I'm kind of surprised I didn't accidentally do anything with that Wizardology book I had when I was a kid, but then, I had already been disbelieving...  And the 'wand' it came with probably wasn't actually magic."

"That's not unlike some stories I've heard about muggle-spring mages.  Hard to make a wand if you don't know what you're doing... but you can do some simple things without one sometimes... and now that I think about it, reacting against something that might subconsciously feel like a threat to your mind isn't unlike it either..."

"Well, a test."

She pulls another wand out of her pocket and hands it to Mira.  "Here, this wand should be the least customized.  Best to step out of the circle to minimize interference for a test - not that it should matter, but - anyway, here's a simple light spell:  Hold your wand up like a candle, trace an overhand knot in the air, then jab up, and that'll give you a light."

She demonstrates, and on top of her wand there appears a small yellowish-blue light looking rather like a candle.

Trace a whatnow?  Nevermind, get out of the circle, she's pretty sure it goes like this and this and this and this and jab -

...Why does she have to hold it like a candle, that feels so wrong to her finely-tuned holding pencil-like objects instincts...

Mira feels something moving inside her fingers, something like drops of water running down them.

And on top of the wand, there's a light!

"...Huh.  That felt interesting."

"Yeah, I've heard other people's first wanded magic does too!

"And - congratulations!"  She throws up her hands.

"This answers all our questions and raises new ones!"

"Like what?  And how does magic work, anyway?"

"Like, how did you not realize you had magic till now!?  How many other muggle-sprung mages - or, hey, their mage children who technically aren't muggle-sprung - are walking around not knowing it either!? 

"And - what're you going to do with yourself now that you do know you're a mage!?"

"Lack of opportunity, probably?  It's not like I was usually waving sticks around in real life.  And my guess is, a lot?  It seems like something you could miss just because you're not really...  Looking?

"And, uh, I don't know?  I'm doing a programming sort of degree, I have no idea if that skillset is transferable..."

"You could just miss magic --"

Aeslin's horrified.

"I haven't really watched kids, but - I'm pretty sure it's easy enough they get it - but I guess I'm not seeing many of the kids who don't know about magic -"

"And I know some mages who could use some good programmers!  It's so much easier to find things in the university library here!"

"...Why is magic hidden, anyway?  And - well - I'm not that good at programming and you'd probably want someone with a library sciences degree actually?  If you're thinking of the library as the important thing here?  Which is is, to be honest, but."

"...The 'you' in that prior statement was 'organized magical society', I should clarify.  At least, I think that's what I was thinking.  Not that it's not impossible that kids are missing on discovering magic.  I have no idea about the base rate of people self-discovering magic...  And now I've got a lot of open questions about people I know who definitely believe themselves capable thereof...  But you would think that people would pick up on that more often, and if there's a Masquerade on...  Ugh, I don't like this.  I don't...

"Truth is the highest virtue, but people's lives are too much of a cost.  And now I might have to lie to everyone I've ever known, because I don't know what the cost will be.  And it won't just be me paying it, will it.  Damn it all."

"... I'm sure there're other things to do too, but yes, libraries are the really important thing!" says Aeslin, who has never in her life heard a word about statistical analysis software or modeling software.

"And... I suppose I don't know that rate either... I might like to talk with your friends too?  But you'd know better how to..."

"... but, ugh.  How do other muggle-sprung mages do it without spinning a huge lie all their lives?"  She shakes her head.  "Never asked them yet.

"I'm sure there's some reason behind the Masquerade?  But I never bothered looking into it beyond the kids' pastel-picturebook version of nasty Muggles hating magic and mages finding it easier not to tell them the truth anymore if they bothered interacting at all."  She waves her hands.  "Now of course there're tons of things that'd come crashing down if it did come down too."

Libraries contain lots of information about statistics and computer modelling!

"...The trick is, they probably don't.  It's easier to fade away from the rest of the world than to fight against the structural pressures of magical society.  It's kind of funny, how She Who Must Not Be Named got that one thing right about her horrible ripoff.  It's.

"...aw, fuck.  It's cultlike.  Magic is special and you are magic so you are special, do not talk to The Outsider, they will never understand you (not like we do)...  Cults.  Gods damning fuckit.  This is going to be utterly horrible.  And the more horrible it is, the more I find myself insisting on pushing through."

"...As far as things that depend upon the Masquerade existing: Things like what?"

Well yes, but Aeslin hasn't been looking at those topics yet this year.

"Horrible?  A... cult?  But - we don't have a cult leader; we've got different countries and factions; it's just that they all agree on the Masquerade and probably depend on it... and we can talk with muggles all the time if we want; I know some people who live next door to them...  And why'd it be horrible?"

"...You still can't talk about anything to do with magic.  And that creates a structural divide in - gah, my thoughts are outpacing my words here but - that there is an agreement upon the Masquerade's necessity that I dare suspect none would be allowed to truly speak against - that's cultlike.  It isolates.  And perhaps for cause, but - oh, hell, I just realized that the militaries of the world today would absolutely try to weaponize magic like it's MKULTRA 2.0, and start fucking with things that are best left unfuckened.  That sort of play could be worse than nukes.  Well.  Now I'm convinced the Masquerade is most definitely necessary, because I cannot countenance that.  Fucking hell.  And I've never been so glad that Christianity as practiced tends to want nothing to do with anything that looks magicky, because ten bucks says that some asshole would start trying to do so-called 'conversion' so-called 'therapy' with it.  And I hope y'all'd come down on that shit like a ton of bricks, but...  Gods.  I don't want to be thinking about just how bad mindfuckery can get but I'm not going to escape the question because right now I know that I know nothing and the absence of perceivable limits upon such things terrifies me."

Aeslin shivers.

"I don't know what the Greater Fay could do if they set their minds to it, and the better-attested stories are already more than I'm comfortable with...  I'm really glad about the Mapmaking.  And also glad I live in Canada - or, well, the United States now - I think some of their worst spells are too close to slavery to work here.  Not that I want to do a comparative study.

"The good news... well, less-bad news... is that I'm pretty sure they would take down any muggle government that was trying to weaponize magic.  If they knew about it."

"At least there probably isn't -- I'm not even going to say that out loud.  It was already risky enough to think about because if I was right then I'd've been utterly fucked by the premise.  But thankfully I think I have not had my brain eaten by a grue.

"I mean I guess I wouldn't know, if I had, assuming that the thing was benign enough that I'm still alive, but I don't feel like I'm missing time or anything, there's not anything where I'm - metaphorically running my tongue over my short-term memory only to find a loose or missing tooth where there shouldn't be --

"...Moving away from that line of thought because it's fucking terrifying, uh...

"...so how does - hm, that might be too broad -

"...I still have very little idea of either how or why magic works in practice?  Like.  How do you spells?  ...Although, it's late...  Even if I've probably terrified myself into another hour or so awake until the chemicals calm the fuck down again.  ...And into wanting to sleep with a nightlight."  She takes a shuddery breath, trying to calm herself down by sheer force of will (and also biology).

"I could check you again for memory magic if you really wanted?  But I didn't notice any missing time..."

Aeslin, now that she's thinking about it, yawns.

"Short version, it's your will nudging the... earth-memory, earth-force... and the wand acting as a conduit between them.  We say earth-memory, but it might be broader - like I was saying, we don't know if it's only on the Earth or in space too..."

She yawns again.

"Want to sleep here?  It's sort of cramped, but I've got a spare bedroll.  And a sleep spell and dream magic if you want that!"

"...Not worth the trouble of checking; if there was a problem it would have already been had.

"And...  Yeah, I think I would prefer to sleep over.  And see the dream magic, that's for sure."

"Sure!"  She brightly grins.  

"No spare clothes in your size, though - yeah, there're some laundry spells but I've never learned them.  Got a spare nightgown though that's probably loose enough to fit?"

She waves her wand, and the door to her bedroom flies open.  There's a lot more clear space on the floor there.  "Anything else before I lay out the bedroll?  Water's in the kitchen as usual... Don't bother the pitchers in the fridge, they're for experiments."

"I'll just sleep in what I've already got on, I figure.  It won't kill me.  If that doesn't work, there's always a sleep spell."