The following day, after school, Sadde waits for Alistair.
"Hmm... how about this." He grabs a few pieces of paper from a backpack and says, "By the power of the Wind, under the Moon's guidance, let my Voice carry steady and true! Let me be heard, let me be noticed, let not a word be misunderstood! There, this is better," he says, his voice amplified. "Ladies and gentlemen! We are gathered here to prove to you that magic is real!" he repeats, his voice much more audible and clear even though it's not coming from an electronic amplifier or anything like that.
While Sadde continues doing some more magic and recovering from the slight slip, the Cards start becoming visible to Scott.
The Through is gone. So is the Maze. He can find them both but they're in opposite directions and hiding, a lot like they were before he'd captured them and a lot unlike the Cards in his/Sadde's/Alistair's possession.
...well, actually there's a difference between his and the other two's Cards...
Here she is. She starts singing—an enchanting sound, beautiful and moving in a way the mere notes composing it shouldn't seem to allow. It echoes and gets compounded in a way sound shouldn't be, spreading much farther than normal.
"...wow," the guy breathes, taking a step forward. "What's that—?"
They make the news.
Or, not them in particular, and not even, like, breaking news or anything, but a lot of people in the city are reporting surprisingly internally consistent reports of actual magic. Stage magicians is, of course, the natural conclusion, but the video goes viral pretty quickly anyway, especially due to the fact that lots of other people were recording it on their phones too and can corroborate the sheer improbability of all of that having been staged.
There is a knock on the Argents' door the next day.
"I'm not but I didn't know I wouldn't be when I got sent," Megan shrugs, then looks at Alistair. "No, not as bad as nukes. Usually. You'd have to be pretty creative to get as bad as nukes and want to do something really big? And even then I guess nukes are very big. Not as bad as nukes."
"I am surprised and unimpressed." She looks at Alistair. "With the understanding that this was a rogue action and not one taken with the full consent and understanding of your clan, we will not impose immediate sanctions. Further such actions will however be treated as hostile to the status quo."
"We had some visitors from another sorcerer clan. Two representatives, from different clans. One of them, Megan, seemed interested in the radical ideas we're promoting; the other one decided that since my parents didn't approve of what we did, it wasn't worth imposing sanctions. They gave me their emails."
He shares those, and looks at his cards.
"They really couldn't seem to agree on anything. Apparently, any further actions like this will be treated as hostile. We should reach out to Megan's clan and establish some kind of alliance. The other clan might give us peace, if we're lucky. This will have to go through our clan, but you should be a part of the decision process. I can't trust the rest of my family with this."