They truly don't, the second place is giving Theo the type of look that gave birth to the phrase "If looks could kill".

From the watching crowd the looks vary a lot. Many are of astonishment, others are distracted, only one person is looking with concern.

But Theo is excused if he doesn't recognize that concerned boy; he doesn't go to this school.

Theo's hardly looking into the crowd for a random boy who doesn't go to his school. He just won the 400m!

... Those glares are definitely dampening his mood, though.

It is like the second place doesn't want the newbie to be happy for stealing his place! Either way, more glaring.

Luckily the coach comes to his rescue and there are many congratulatory pats in the back, some pretty girls winks and many remarks to the effect of "What amazing natural talent!"

The crowd filters out, the concerned boy stays, out of the way, remaining inconspicuous, apparently checking his phone but looking at Theo every 30 seconds.

At first, Theo takes no more notice of him than usual; again, just a random kid, sitting in the stands: it's hardly anything to take note of. He goes into the changing rooms, ignoring the looks from the other competitors, then has a quick shower, changes out of his sportswear, and comes back out.

Practically everyone's gone, but he notices that the boy's still there. He also doesn't recognise him. That's a bit weirder.

The unfamiliar boy gets up and apparently is moving to talk with Theo...

Then a much more familiar face materializes in front of Theo. "Amelia Dylan. I'm the school's reporter." She says with a smile and Theo already knew who she was but they never talked before. "A word?"

The unfamiliar boy halts and waits, checking his phone again.

"Um. Sure?" he says, a bit off-guard in response to the smile. Is it just him, or does it seem a bit... predatory?

Amelia's smile widens, this does not help her look any less like a wolf in front of prey.

She makes fairly generic questions: His full name? How long he has been running? What other sports he likes? What he has to say about the coach saying Theo might compete at the national level?

Mr. Second-Place gets out of the changing rooms and Amelia notices; she smiles crookedly and says a bit too loudly. "What would you say about potential accusations of... too much success too soon?" She gives Theo a meaningful look while shaking her head towards the glaring boy.

Both boys react to this and Mr. Second-Place glares while the unfamiliar boy looks... contemplative?

"Theo Hughes. Not too long, actually – I only started running properly at the beginning of this academic year. Football's okay? I'm not sure national-level competition is for me, really."

He follows her gaze over to the boy who came second place, notices the look, and starts feeling a bit defensive. "I'd say that I'm a bit surprised by my progress, and I'd hope people wouldn't try tarnishing my reputation just for beating them in a race."

Mr. Second-Place lunges towards Theo. Amelia steps out of the way with a confused expression in her face. Unfamiliar boy is about to intervene but then stops.

Theo was focusing on Amelia when the boy lunged at him, so he doesn't notice the move immediately. He gets knocked to the floor, surprised by the attack, and tries to roll away from his attacker. "What the fuck, dude?"

Putting his hand to his face, he notices he's luckily not bleeding, but seriously, what the hell? He notices the other guy coming towards him again and dodges.

The boy doesn't get any other hits in and after about four of five attempts he is pried off Theo by the unfamiliar boy, who looks annoyed.

"Yeah, Thompson, what the fuck?" Amelia says nervously and unsincerely.

The unfamiliar boy holds Thompson down by locking at his arms.

Theo gets up, looks at the restrained boy, then says, "Thanks," to the unfamiliar guy. He brushes himself off and glares at the guy who came second place, apparently "Thompson". 'If looks could kill' indeed.

"Did you seriously just attack me because I beat you in a race?"

"You can't get this good so fast!" Thompson snarls. "Who is this clown?" He says to the guy holding him. "Is he your dealer? Fucking dopers. Oh, look he tensed and he is strong." The unfamiliar guy presses harder against Thompson. "Fuck, I can't breathe."

Theo growls angrily. "I have no idea who he is! I'm not on drugs, you prat."

Thompson growls something and tries to wrestle his way out of the other boy's grip, to no avail.

"Oh, for god's sake, just let him go," he says to the unfamiliar boy. "Idiot." he spits in the direction of the attacker.

"You better go." The unfamiliar boy speaks for the first time.

Thompson leaves.

"Are you two going to report him?" He asks.

"Ugh. Maybe. If it happens again, definitely, but... I don't know."

"Yeah, not a good idea to just report people like that. I'm sure he learned his lesson." Amelia says, is she a bit frantic? She might be.

"You instigated the situation, they are likely to punish you as well." He says bluntly.

Now Amelia is frantic and defensively she asks "Who are you anyway? I never forget a face."

"Yeah. I mean, thanks for stopping him... eventually... but who are you? I know you don't go to this school."

"My sister might attend here next year." He says like reading a script.

"Right!" Amelia says incredulously.

"I can report this to the principal."

"Right!" Amelia says credulously.

"Okay, I guess," he says. Not wanting to continue to talk to Amelia or the weird guy, he just walks away.

Later on Theo's way home he might notice a certain familiar face sitting on a park bench. This time the guy waves and calls Theo closer.

That's... weird. He walks over to the guy warily – they met once, so what? – and says, "Hi?"

"Hi!" He smiles warmly. "You met my twin earlier."

It isn't hard to believe the two are different people just by general posture and speech, but Theo isn't all that familiar with either of them.

"Oh, okay. So you have a sister who's thinking of going to my school, then?"

"Yeah!" He responds quickly "He thought he had recognized you from when we were kids."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm not entirely unsure. Do you remember this game where we had to pick seven powers from a list, then pass those powers to the next person, who picked more seven powers to pass and so on?" He is paying a lot of attention to Theo's answer.

"... No? What's it called?"

Something similar to disappointment crosses his face. "There wasn't a formal name... Well, I guess you are not the specific person we are looking for."

There is a pause.

"Anything weird happening to you recently?"

"I... don't think so? Unless you mean my running?"

"Maybe! How weird is it?"

"Well, I mean, you saw what people were..." – here, he stops, then starts again – "I mean, your brother saw what people were saying today. Didn't he tell you?"

He giggles at his correction. "He did comment on how fast you are! But I'm curious to know your opinion on the matter."

"I got really good really quickly. I'm seriously not on drugs or anything, but it does seem weird...?"

"And you don't have an explanation besides 'natural talent, I guess'?"

"No? What other explanation would there be?"

He gets a weirdly thoughtful look in his face.

"Magic?" He says teasingly but watching for Theo's response.

"Ha. Very funny," he says, starting to look like he might just leave.

"In fact, that is why we noticed you and why we are being all creepy and cryptic. We are searching for a magical person."

A voice from inside Theo's head says. I'm sorry. That could have been better handled.

"What. The. Fuck."

Magic. You have some, likely related to the running. Who ever is doing this isn't anywhere in sight.

Don't have a heart attack, okay? Theo can somehow recognize this is coming from the boy sitting on the park bench.

"I... am not going to have a heart attack," he says to the boy on the bench. He's still pretty shocked.

The boy in the bench gestures Theo to sit. "Good, that would be incovenient."

He takes the seat. "I mean, I can't actually guarantee that, but I'm pretty sure. Now: what."

He turns on the seat to face him. "Here is what: first keep calm and listen. No scenes. We are searching for people with magic and managed to find you."

"Um. What do you mean?"

"It means you have magic...?" He says unsure of what is not coming across.

"... Ha? No, seriously."

Seriously. Says the voice in Theo's head. "Hello." Says a voice behind him. I saw when you ran and dodged the attacks.

"And quick running is a superpower? If it is, that is the worst version of superspeed I've ever heard of."

The second boy sits next to Theo and takes his phone, the bench is getting a bit crowded. Pretend you are watching something on the phone. Think your replies at me.

It is pretty easy. And if you have what we think you have it isn't just running quick.

He looks at the phone and tries thinking, Testing. Is this working?

Working. Over.

Roger that, Theo thinks, rolling his eyes. So what do you think I have, then?

Magic come in these packages, called Fates. We found an old book described a few of them. Yours might be the one called "Champion".

All we know about the Champion is a short description from the book 'Capable of magical physical feats after training', then writen over are the words: It can fly and make fire!!!

And you... don't have any idea what kind of training, or anything? I mean, if I do have it, all I've got so far is running.

You know literally everything we know. Not all information matched what we have experienced so far. I can sense magic and you definitely have it and it shone while you tried to move fast.

I have this prophetic vision thing and it pointed us to here. Maybe if you trained other things besides speed? ...Jumping really high for flight?

Um. I'm gonna look ridiculous if I just start jumping right here, so I hope you didn't mean that...

Well, not immediately no. Just an idea for the future.

Thinking of the future. Do you plan to do something like going to newspapers and babble about magic?

Probably not? At least not yet? I mean, even if I had some obvious power to prove it, which I don't, I'm not sure it would really benefit anyone that much...

That is basically our approach, since you can't tell a secret and you are the third Fated we know. Except that we have obvious powers.

Our kind of fate is called Heir. Remember when I asked about the game where you pick seven powers to pass on the next person? That is what Heirs do. I got the powers first, then passed on to Fenris, who tried to pass backed to me but it failed.

Oh. That's pretty weird. Have you passed it on since then, then? And what powers can you pick?

Yes, that is what I meant with failure. The catch of the Heir is that you have to pick the powers and the parameters of the next Heir before getting your own powers and you can't pick any power that is currently in use.

I basically tried to repeat Felix's parameters with some extra constrants. It doesn't just accept 'my twin' or the like. There is a total of 49 powers. Here. He sends the list as a single condensed thought. We can only pick one power from each row or column on top of the no-repeats constraint.

You have no idea how many graphs we had to make before finally settling on a good power set.

He blinks at the condensed list. I'm not sure I got all that, but I'd have trouble picking between a lot of those. If I actually do have Champion, I think it probably suits me better than that would.

I wish I could have chosen, but mine aren't bad. I got healing which is about the most important power to have around.

How does it work?

He lays a finger on the back of Theo's hand. The small bruises, scrapes and aches from earlier start to mend themselves. Like this... Aaand I just realized we haven't properly introduced ourselves. We are Felix and Fenris Bright.

We are adopted. Fenris answers preemptively.

You are... adoptedly called 'Bright'? Or adopted brothers, who aren't actually twins by birth?

It is a mystery! Not even we know! We only know we are adopted.

Do you know who you were adopted by? Or is that a mystery too?

Of course it is a mystery. How would we even know? Just by living with these people since early infancy? That is just ridiculous!

He is probably joking.

We already know you are Theo Hughes.

... Ah. I'm so scared.

Is it possible to tell he's being sarcastic? Why yes, yes it is.

Aw! Don't be scared Theo. Felix pulls Theo into a tight half-hug. Magic is real and you have it! Isn't that great?

Thaaat's... a little bit creepy. He's only just met this guy, and he doesn't feel like they've instantly hit it off as great pals or whatever. He pulls away from the hug.

Uh, yeah. It's... great. Hey, listen, I've got to get going, but I'll talk to you some other time, okay?

He grabs his stuff and gets up.

Oh, sorry. he looks and sounds genuinely upset about it.

He was very excited about finally meeting someone else with magic. And until today his experience was magical people liking his hugs.

"It was nice meeting you." Fenris says this out loud. "Do you mind exchanging contact information?" This form of communication is limited if I don't know you well enough.

"Yeah, you too. Sure," he says, then writes his mobile number on a bit of scrap paper and hands it over.

"Thank you." Fenris hands their own mobile numbers and e-mails. "I hope we stay in touch."

"Sure, that's cool."

He goes back to his house.

A few days later Theo gets an e-mail:

"Hello, Theo. How are things?"

Things are fine. I haven't really... noticed anything different.

What have you tried so far? Also have you told anyone? We told our parents that we met another one but not the specifics.

I've been trying to improve my strength. I think there might have been a change, but I haven't exactly been doing weights training, so I don't really know what I was like before? Anyway, nah, I don't think my dad would really get it. It'd just freak him out, and I don't think he'd be much help.

Not gonna touch the subject of his mother.

It is a good idea to measure how good you are before starting. Our parents are pretty okay with the situation.

Yeah, I know, but if I keep going I can probably see the increase. I'm still doing running, too, so I can see how much I improve in that.

No other incidents with that guy that attacked you?

Thompson has mostly doing his best to pretend that Theo doesn't exist.

There have been a couple of people making snide comments, but no actual attacks, thankfully.

That's good. Theo might not be so forgiving a second time. (Nah, he totally would be.)

Well, feel free to ask for our - specifically Felix's - help if anything happens. He feels bad over making you uncomfortable, you might even extract some prophetically answered question out of him.

Thanks. I'm not sure I really need any prophecies right now, though.

Apparently, Fenris doesn't feel like replying to this.

That's okay. Theo didn't have anything else to add.

A few days later, Theo's in a bit of a pickle. He thought it would be a gradual increase in strength, not a sudden one, and so... he had a bit of a mishap with the weights.

He e-mails Fenris back: I'm guessing you didn't realise it would be a sudden change in ability? Because it was.

He gets a faster reply: What happened?

Followed closely by: Do you need help?

I'm okay now, but it was a bit surprising to be lifting weights and then to fling them because they suddenly felt really light. I can handle it.

Okay. Be careful then. Also, we never told you the extend of our powers, is that the kinda of thing you would want to be see in person?

Yeah, probably. I think you mentioned a couple of things, but it'd be nice to see what you can do.

We have a place that is good place to use our abilities without being worried. When do you have an afternoon free?

I should be free tomorrow – are we going to meet somewhere then go there afterwards, or do you have directions?

We have a car. Either way is good. Fenris sends an address that is a little too far for Theo to go by himself.

That's a bit out of the way from where I live – maybe if you pick me up halfway? He names a place that they can find him, and suggests a time.

I'll be there.

Theo will find Fenris standing against the back of his car, hands on his pockets looking oddly interested at a nearby tree.

Theo walks up to him, notices the look at the tree, and says, "Hey. ... Is there something wrong with that tree?"

"Oh. No."

It was sick, not anymore. How are things?

"Hello." He remembers to say.

Oh, that's cool. Things are fine for me; how about you?

Pretty great. Before we leave. I have a small warning, we are meeting there because we have a gryphon and an unicorn.

If Fenris bluntness was literal, Theo would have bruise in the morning.

Oh. Cool. How much are they like the mythological creatures?

They're people and come apart of the Heir package. Tammy is the gryphon and his partner, can turn herself and people she touches invisible. Vera is the unicorn and my partner, she can heal like Felix. Both can't die of old age... Vera is very excited to meet you, but she is polite, sometimes shy.

Oh, cool. Yeah, I should be fine with that then.

Fenris is content to drive in silence.

Eventually they reach their destination, talls walls and trees completely obscure the street's view of the house. Once the automatic door is up, they see a modest house with the backyard's view obscured by a tall hedge and even more trees.

Well. This is a nice place.

It truly is, "agressively alive" comes as a descriptor, hard to believe so much green can exist so close to London.

Felix opens the door, likely informed by Fenris telepathically.

"Hi again, Theo."

"Hello. How've you been?" he says.

"Good. Taking care of magical beasts, sneaky healing during volunteer work, trying to divine where other magical people are, same old. How about you?"

You can almost touch how much he wanted to say those words.

"Sounds fun. Mainly I've been at school and trying to train some skills. I'm guessing you heard about the incident with the weights?"

"Yup! It is the kind of stuff that sounds hilarious on a TV show, but not so much in practice. Come in, sorry for the mess."

The "mess" being a large quantity of scultures, decorations and parts. All made of metal, even the furniture is mostly metallic.

"I was aiming for a 'yes, I can control metal' vibe."

"I... think you got that," he says, smiling a little. "How long did this take?"

"The whole room? Most of a year of non-concentrated effort. I made most, but not everything."

"On top of the metal control, Felix also got enhanced crafting skills from being a Heir. It is a very synergetic combination."

"You've known about your powers for a year?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"Yes?"

"... Well, okay. I didn't realise."

"For all we know, you had yours for much longer."

"Have you tried athletic stuff before?"

"Yeah, I'm usually pretty sporty, but I've never noticed it like this."

"It would be nice to know, but," Felix shrugs. "Want to meet the girls now or later?"

"Uh, sure? Now's okay."

"Follow me." Felix says, but Fenris takes the lead.

They walk through a metallic-decorated corridor to the backyard.

Tamira and Vera turn their heads around to look at them, there is something about them that is obviously magical, hard to pin down. Tamira is a light tawny color in the fur with almost white feathers and has a imponent presence. Vera looks like a mix of deer and horse, elegant and her white fur is so pristine that is hard to believe she can exist in the same world as dust and dirt, her single horn and hooves are like mother-of-pearl with a silvery sheen.

"Hi?" Says Vera quietly, then burrying her face in Tamira's wing.

Theo follows.

"Uh, hi," he says, a bit uncertainly.

Tamira cocks her head "Hi." She says flatly, then to the unicorn, "Really?" and extracts Vera's face from her wing by the horn using her suprisingly destrous claws.

"Be nice, Tamia." Felix admonishes.

Vera gets up and it is a very graceous, fluid motion, like a dancer performing a rehearsed movement, she approaches Theo with caution.

"Hi! I-I'm Vera Bright."

Aww, that's cute. Theo doesn't get any closer, and also tries not to make any sudden movements. "I'm Theo," he says.

That improves her confidence, she jumps a little, now Theo knows what graceful sillyness looks like.

"They said you are fast! Do you wanna race?" She says excitedly.

"Don't be too forceful, Vera." Fenris says neutrally.

"Uh, I'm not that fast, and probably not right now? Maybe some time, though," he says. He's a bit uncomfortable, so he doesn't really want to do anything like that yet, but eventually, sure.

"Okay! As long you don't cheat." Vera says.

"The important thing is getting there!" Tamira protests. "You never complain when Fenris flies."

"Well," Felix says turning to Theo. "Since the whole point of this is meeting was to show off powers. Would you like to see Fenris fly?"

"Sure," he says, looking a bit more excited.

Fenris looks between Felix and Theo, and then gives an uncharacteristic grin.

Without a word he is two feet above the ground and zipping away from them at a suprising speed his giggling soon fades with the distance. Vera dashes behind him, her giggles much more noticeable" and she keeps up with him until they reach the edge greenhouse in the otherside of the yard. Fenris then curves upward gaining surprising speed vanishing.

After a moment the briefest ghost of a movement flashes in the sky above and then, Fenris is back, happier than Theo has ever seen him before.

"That looks like fun," Theo comments blithely, smiling back. "Have you tried taking someone with you?" he asks. "Not that I'm volunteering," he adds quickly.

"Of course! I don't have extra-strength, but as long there enough of a hold it is safe. We have a harness to strap people on."

"He used to carry me when I was little." Vera comments whistfully.

"I can fly using metal as support but it is suprisingly non-intuitive. I prefer Tamira." Felix says scratching the gryphon's neck. "Have you tried flying yet?"

"Awwh!" he exclaims. "No, I haven't tried flying yet. How do you think I'd go about it? Actually, there's an idea. I wonder how high I could jump?"

He decides to try it out, experimentally, and starts jumping. Hopefully he doesn't look ridiculous.

Well, the gryphon and the unicorn don't have any comment on the ridiculousness of the situation.

Fenris however observes him closely. "Hmm. I'm noticing something, different than when you were running." He ponders.

He stops for a second. "Oh?" he asks, then resumes jumping.

"Yes..." He says squinting. "Maybe we should do some experiments? Like... try running again? I don't quite remember how it looks."

He stops jumping, says "Okay..." then tries running back and forth a bit.

Fenris watches. "Yeah, there is definitely something different. Do you think you can try to sort of... train both at once?"

"Warn him if you are feeling too much like a guinea pig."

"Nah, it's okay, if it helps me understand it better."

He runs along, jumping as he goes, feeling a bit like he's jumping over some invisible hurdles.

"Huh, you can stop for a moment. Okay, were you trying something different between jumping and jumping while running? I could tell... lets it call colors, were different."

"I don't... think so? I was just doing what it looked like – jumping in place at first, and then jumping while running along."

"My diagnosis is that both kinds of jumping are related and I could tell there are two things going on while you jump and running. Do you mind weight-training?"

"I can get Theo some weights, but are we should test if the training is necessary? I'm unsure how you could train yourself to make fire. Magically, I mean."

"Weight-training would be fine. I have no idea how I'd train myself to make fire. Maybe by lighting a match over and over, then hoping I can just do it spontaneously? How would we test if the training is necessary?"

"Oh, that could work for the fire. A test for the training is simply... well, wishing for something to happen, maybe meditating, while Fenris squints at you."

Felix gets back inside, presumably for weight retrival.

"That is worth a shot." Agrees Fenris. "Maybe it's a expectation thing? You expect for running to improve your speed, then it improves."

"Uh, I guess I can try? I'm not sure I can actually convince myself that just sitting there is going to improve my ability to spontaneously generate fire, though."

He tries it anyway.

Fenris squints at him. Right as Felix returns he announces "It is working, but keep going."

Felix returns, floating metal pieces following him. "Great, I earned a cookie."

Theo's pretty surprised by that, but continues to try generating fire.

It's really difficult to actually believe that fire should just appear.

... Also potentially dangerous, but it seems Theo hasn't thought of that.

After several minutes of squiting Fenris says "Okay. As far my power can tell, desire works, but it isn't as strong as training."

"What's the difference? Is it just like half the speed, or is it more like a hundredth?"

"I... can't tell with precision, less than a quarter, but more than a twentieth?"

"Oh, okay, so it's not too bad..."

He gets up and starts jumping again. Might as well practice it, if it acts like a progress bar until he "levels up". That's what it sounds like, anyway.

They observe this for a few moments. Vera looking quietly, while Tamira relaxes on a sunny patch. Felix plays with the unused weights trying arrangements to form a table and chairs.

"Wait. How about if you try something like healing? Or improving vision? Or my brand of telepathy?"

"Hm... I'll try healing first," he decides.

He scratches his arm, quite seriously and quite casually, then focuses on it.

There is a collective and loud "..." from the others, but no one actually comments.

"Okay, it is actually working faster because you are doing some practical healing." Fenris says clinically.

"Hm? Oh, I just thought I'd need an injury to be able to actually train healing," he says, seeming oblivious to the stares.

"Well... you're right. I don't think that scratch is going to heal until is time for you to leave, it might be a good idea to get Vera to heal it for you and then you could get one in a less visible spot. So we avoid another incident like with the weights."

"Are you trying to get like... a personal healing factor or the ability to heal anyone?" Asks Felix sounding a little shocked. What could have possibly caused that?

"Generic healing, overall, but since I'm just focusing on myself right now, I don't know how that'll affect it."

It takes a while, but Theo suddenly gasps and looks at his arm, looking shocked. It's not because it's healed.

"Something happened? I can't see anything."

He doesn't answer at first, just looks between the scratch and his nails.

"Do you have any clue why I'd just decide that scratching myself was a good idea?"

Collective head shakes. Tamira says from her lazy position. "Maybe you're not very bright."

"Tamira!" Felix hisses.

"Well, your logic is sound, we have two healers here and apparently the cost of pain wasn't that bad. Overall, it sounds like a rational decision."

"But it was a little weird."

"I mean, yeah, but... I could've just tried it without harming myself first, or I could've just tried repairing muscle damage from exercise, or something."

"Yes, you could have." Fenris says agreeably.

"Well, you can do healing!" Felix says suddenly and too brightly. "Try the other things, can you improve vision?"

"I'll try," he says, then he starts focusing on his vision.

"It is working. Slower than when you try speed and jumping, but not by much."

"Okay," he says, and keeps at it for a bit.

It's probably a bit boring to just watch him; maybe they should go do something.

"Try getting Magic detection?" Felix suggests after a bit.

"Okay," Theo says agreeably, and tries just that.

Does he just sit here and try to see something that's not there? 'Cause that's what he's doing.

"Not working, at all." He diagnoses. "I don't even think it is too subtle for me to detect, it just plain doesn't work."

"Well that's a shame," says Theo. He kinda expected it though – it's not a very "physical" skill. "Should I try the weight training?"

Felix reshapes the metal parts into lifting weights.

"I'm not into bodybuilding. How about getting something to eat?"

"Honestly. I would try test the limits of your power some more, but it would be useful to take five minutes elaborating them instead of implementing as we go."

"Yeah, improving my current abilities sounds good."

He tries picking up the weights and finds that his abilities are a bit better than normal, but nowhere near what they were in the incident with the weights a few days ago. He keeps lifting them, actually aiming to improve his strength rather than just doing it aimlessly, and sees if it has any effect.

Fenris squints and occassionally writes things on his phone. From an outsider perspective it almost looks like glaring. Vera cuddles next to Tamira.

Felix gets up and returns a few minutes later with snacks, tea and Coke and lemonade, carried by floating metal trays.

Theo stops to grab a biscuit and a can of lemonade, has a quick break to eat, then gets back to exercising.

Felix levitates a coke can for Tamira to poke with a claw and lap its contents. Vera is eating Jammie Dodgers that Fenris is handfeeding to her, while he and his twin, ponder on possible experiments.

After several minutes. "Okay, we have five to seven tests. Do you want to start now?"

"Sure! This is easier than it was, I think, but I'm not sure what caused me to lose control last time. What ideas do you have?"

He puts the weights down, and notices his arm again, frowning. Maybe he should focus on healing that at some point?

"See if you can improve mind related stuff, like Fenris' Telepathy, while remembering that brains are physical objects. See if you can improve others. If you can improve others, see if you can improve natural magical traits. See if you can improve your ability to improve, creating something a feedback loop. See if you can get a power without knowing what the power does. See if you can copy a power with only a partial explanation of what it does. And if you can if a full explanation helps."

"My telepathy is communication oriented, no mind control and no taking or implanting things. I can create networks with nearby people. My range to connect with someone depends on my familiarity with that person. No known limits with our parents and immediate family. Felix, Vera and Tamira can initiate conversations with me."

"Okay, uh. I'll try just initiating telepathy first, then? That's probably the easiest first step?"

"It could be? I don't think their ability to initiate conversation is a trait they have, but a trait of my own magic. It sounds like a valid test either way."

"Okay, then. I'll try that – let me know if it looks like anything's happening?"

He focuses on sending a message to Fenris. And, because he's boring, it goes: Testing, testing. 1, 2, 3. Over and over again.

Fenris squints for several minutes, just to be certain. "Sorry, nothing. Want to see if you can improve my ability to run?"

"Okay. Should you be running while you do it, or will it be enough to tell anyway?"

He starts focusing on improving Fenris's speed, anyway.

"It should be enough, but I will run." Fenris gets up, plays with Vera's hair and then starts doing laps around the lawn.

Every so often he squints at Theo, occassionally he squints at himself.

"Didn't work." He says a little out of breath.

"I tell him to exercise more, but does he listen? Noooo. He doesn't." Felix comments, mostly to Tamira. "Okay, feedback loop time?"

"Okay, sure, yeah."

He focuses on his ability to improve things. It's really difficult to focus on a thing that he's never seen and that he didn't properly know about until recently. Maybe just thinking 'I want to improve my improvement' over and over will work?

"Not working."

"Well, that was too much of a cheat." Felix sighs. "The next is testing if you can copy something without knowing what it is. We decided the best if you tried one of my heir gifts. I have seven, Tamira was one, the other six include, control over metal, healing and prophetic visions, there are three you haven't seen yet and one of those is about movement. Try to focus on my unespecified movement magic?"

"Um, okay..."

He focuses on moving like Felix.

"Stop!" Fenris orders after a moment. "What were you trying to do?"

"... Trying to get the movement thing? That's what I was meant to do, right?"

"Yes, but I saw two things happening, one unfamiliar and one that looked like... a negative-color of your speed improvement."

"Um. I'm not sure why it would be two different things?"

"I'm not sure, were you trying to do two things? One of which results in you losing speed?"

"Were you trying to get my speed? As in my human and lesser than yours speed?"

"I don't think I was? I was just aiming to get movement magic like Felix."

"...Are you sure? Okay. Maybe try the test again and focus on not-getting slower?"

"Okay then."

He focuses on getting movement like Felix, but not slowing down. Is this any better?

"No negative-color speed. And the other thing is still there. Now the second part of the test."

"My power is either teleportation or portal creation, but we're not going to tell you which one right now. Focus that you want either one of those powers, but only the one that is mine?"

"Okay..."

So he focuses on transport like Felix, specifically either teleportation or portal creation.

"Not working at all. His power is teleportation, try that?"

"Huh. Okay."

And he tries to focus on getting Felix's teleportation.

"Working. Except it's completely different from the other thing you're getting from Felix. If I had to guess whatever you're getting before was something like... maybe Felix's grace? or some skill like dancing? It wasn't anything super-natural."

He stops focusing on the teleportation and instead works on his eyesight again – sure, teleportation would be useful, but he'd rather have better eyesight for now.

"That's weird? I mean, I was just aiming to get the movement thing that Felix had, so I guess that was pretty vague? I guess I'll have to be careful about that if I'm aiming for a specific skill."

"Weird? Do you think that..." Felix teleports several feets to the left. "is weird? "

"Keeping a constant improvement mindset in general sounds extremely useful." Fenris squints. "It is so interesting watching another kind of magic. Currently, our magic is stronger, but yours grows. I wonder to what limit... Eyesight?"

"Yeah, I'm doing my eyesight right now. And yeah, teleportation is weird, but I don't know why I would have been getting something else at first."

"Some weird interaction between magic and vagueness?" Fenris shrugs. "I don't regret having magic-seeing, but I wish it was less vague."

"Don't talk me about vague senses. Theo, did he ever got around telling you what was my vision that led us to find you?"

"No...?"

"Oh, I had this dream-like vision with an ancient olympic race where you win. The sun always placed such that I couldn't take a look on your face and there was a flash when you got the golden medal. Then I saw you in a gladiator arena fighting someone with a silver medal until the thousands of vines wrapped around the other fighter. After that the vision sort of crumbled and all that was left was a bunch of symbols that we later figured out are signs and logos of your school and stuff around your school."

"We spent three weeks trying to decipher the symbols' meanings and then only figured out by chance." Fenris smiles bitterly. "Felix's power is far more cooperative when isn't being forced to do something specific."

"That... sounds like a heck of a lot of trouble to go to for a prophetic dream. I mean, not that I'm knocking precognition or anything, but what did you ask it? Just 'where's the nearest magic'?"

"Well, yes. Wouldn't you want to know?"

"We were hoping to find answers."

"That's very... vague."

"Vague how?"

"Answers to what? And you're also being evasive with the 'Wouldn't you want to know?' thing, though I guess we've only just met, so that make sense."

"Ah, sorry. That wasn't being evasive, not on purpose. We want to know why and how magic is not publicly known. How they managed when Heirs powers include," He waves at Tamira. "creating a being that doesn't fit any taxonomic classification. We would like to meet where the other people are and what else they could tell us. Or maybe if they need our help. Not to mention it would be nice to have more people to talk about magic."

"Or just to talk to in real life." Vera sighs, resting her head on the grass. Fenris pets her.

"Yeah, that is pretty confusing," Theo agrees. "I'm not sure why it's not known about properly, but I did only find out a few days ago, so I wouldn't really expect to know why yet."

"There is the 'magical people are hunted down so the survivors kept quiet' explanation, teaching us a valuable lesson about accepting differences..."

"One of our main concerns is that there might be some sort of conspiracy out there keeping magic secret... Whose methods might not necessarily be moral."

"Yeah... It could mean that if magical people resurface again, they'll be hunted down. So I'd rather not do that for now. I'm not really sure how to go about telling whether there's a magical conspiracy, though."

"Well, they would be designed exactly so people wouldn't be able to tell if they exist or not."

"I didn't try very hard on that question, but it didn't gave me any feedback if there is a conspiracy or not. Of course, for all we know, anti-oracles are a thing and there is an entire Hogwarts in the middle of London and we haven't found it because we played safe."

"What is your house? I'm a Ravenclaw !" Vera Bright asks Theo brightly.

"I honestly don't know. I'd probably be a boring Hufflepuff or something. But yeah, it's possible, maybe even likely, that there are powers out there that cancel or block others, so I guess we shouldn't rely on them too much."

Theo looks frustrated by the idea of his new magical power not being totally reliable. Sigh.

"Gryffindor, obviously." Tamira says.

"One of Heir's power is the ability to dispel magic. So you're right..." Felix's notices the frustration. "Well, it's all speculation because we don't have enough information. I'll probably have an answer to that question eventually."

"Oh, okay."

"Moving on you have observed flight, my telepathy, my magic sensing and my fight with Thompson is the best practical example of the enhanced skills unless you want to spar. I also have enhanced durability, which was relevant to the fight but obviously not visible and I can control plants." Fenris demonstrates by make a small shrub sprout nearby giving it a vaguely humanoid shape.

"Oh, cool. I wonder what else I'd be able to learn out of that."

It seems that Theo has forgotten about the scratch on his arm. He didn't heal it fully, and he seems to just be standing here, ignoring it.

"One of the reasons Fenris picked that power is the great synergy with one of mine." Felix's waves his hand.

The humanoid-shrub starts moving waving at Theo and looking around.

"... Um. I forgot what powers you had – what is that? Some sort of telekinesis?"

"Oh, I can animate plants, it isn't smart but it can follow orders even if I'm not there to pay attention. I can control metal, but only metal telekinetically."

"What's the difference between Fenris's ability to control plants and your ability to animate them...?"

"He can reshape or grow plants, but they behave normally otherwise. I can't do that, but my plants move around autonomously. I could send this little guy on a scout mission and it will report to me, but Fenris' plants can't do that."

"Oh, okay. That's pretty cool."

Theo finally realises that his arm is still scratched, and decides to focus back on healing that rather than improving his eyesight. What a smart cookie.

Fenris squints. "Felix or Vera could heal your scratch if you want to. It might be better get a less visible injury."

"Yeah, sure, that'd be good."

He holds out his arm.

Vera is the one to heal. Looking like the high fantasy trope she is, her movements are graceful and fluid as she approaches and touches her pearly horn on Theo's arm.

The scratch vanishes no scar or sign left behind and even the arm hairs in that area look about the expected length.

"Thanks!"

Theo checks his watch and notes the time. "It's getting a bit late now. Can we maybe continue this another time? My dad expects me back soon-ish."

"Sure thing. Do you want me to drive you?"

"Yeah, if you could drop me off at the park, that'd be great."

Everyone says goodbye and Fenris drives Theo back to the park.

Theo waves goodbye and walks home.