8 Interrogation and troll attack

Marie glanced at her notes, deciding to start the interrogation first. She knew very well that everyone had questions, but she – the sorcerer known for her perfectionism in work – was always given the right to start an interrogation.

"So, as a fairy, you can use magic even without your scepter? If so, what do you need it for?" Marie immediately asked her questions, typing them into her laptop.

Stella blinked a couple of times, still trying to come to terms that she was being interrogated by a literal six-year-old girl. "Magic is a part of me, the scepter is just a powerful magic focus that helps me cast particularly complex or powerful spells." She jumped in place and moved closer to the table, leaning on it. "My turn! Who are you? If you," Stella looked at the girls in the room, "are not fairies, then who are you? The men in the room I can guess are wizards, but I can't quite understand your powers."

Marie elegantly raised an eyebrow, 'so that's how it is…?' Clearing her throat, she decided to answer. "You're right, men who can use magic on this planet are called wizards, women use the terming witch," she noticed how Stella tensed at her words and made another note. "Of course, these are not all names. Some uses the neutral term wix, some use mage, magus, but in the end it's just a name."

Stella nodded with a tight smile on her face and Marie continued her interrogation. "Magix and Alfea, tell us more, also if you can, a little more about others… magical realms and planets. We've lived through enough isolation, so any information would be helpful."

Nods and grunts were heard all over the table and even Nick, who moved to the window, nodded. If the world is much bigger than they thought before, then they will need all the information that this fairy has.

"I think it would be better to start with Magix," Stella said. "Aside from the major city located on it, it is the capital of all the realms within the Magical Universe, as well as the 'Crossroads to All Magical Dimensions.' Magix serves as the location for three major magical schools, one of which is Alphea, an ancient boarding school for young fairies." It was very a short explanation, but Marie decided to ask her in more detail later, "Although this is more of a college, the training takes place over three years, starting from the moment when the fairy reaches the age of sixteen. Fairies there learn how to control their power, fight evil, learn new spells as well as be guardians of their planets, or in many cases, learn how to be their realms' queens."

And now they heard something important. The fact that the magical planets were still under the rule of kings and queens was… strangely appropriate, but raised a lot of problems.

"Fight evil?" Patrick chuckled, "An interesting concept for a school."

Nick grinned along with the man, remembering his training. His master didn't care about "evil", as long as the planet continues to live. 'The planet is fine. Now, humans, they're fucked.' Nick could understand why Magnus thought so, but that didn't mean he agreed.

Stella frowned, but continued her explanation. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you about magical planets other than my own. Due to my status as a princess, I could not travel freely, it was decided that I would limit my visits until the beginning of my studies." Marie blinked a couple of times, moving the knowledge that the princess of the fucking planet was sitting right in front of her into the background of her mind. "My home, Solaria is the realm of the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars as well as possibly one of the brightest planets in the entire Magic Dimension. A place where it never rains," she said with a nostalgic smile. "We have at least three suns-"

"What?!" Joylin screamed and almost fell off her chair. "How does your planet still exist?! And what do you mean AT LEAST three suns?!"

Stella shrugged her shoulders. "Two suns are usually visible in the sky, the third is sometimes on the other side of the planet. Once in a couple of hundred years, the fourth sun is visible."

Everyone in the room was staring, but it didn't seem to bother Stella. With the most fake cough of her life, Marie spoke again. "Okay, so far it gives us more questions than answers, but something else interested me. Three schools?"

"But it's my turn now!" Stella whined, but clarified. "Alphea, the Red Fountain and the Cloud Tower. Alphea is a school for fairies; Red Fountain is a school for Specialists, wizards and men with insufficient magic to cast spells; and Cloud Tower… it's also a boarding school, but for witches." She sighed heavily and pulled at the stray lock of her hair in thought. "They say that they are a magical opposition for fairies. There is light magic and dark magic. Light magic is the Magic that is fueled by positive feelings such as happiness and love. Dark magic is Magic fueled by negative feelings such as anger, vengeance or sadness. Fairies use Light Magic, and Witches use Dark Magic."

Bloom listened to Stella's explanation with interest, but noticed how the wizards in the room tensed up sharply when it came to Dark Magic. Especially Patrick and Nick looked like they had eaten a fresh lemon.

"Mhm..." Marie still hadn't stopped typing and Bloom leaned over the girl's shoulder to look at the screen, only to see three files open at the same time with a hundred different theories. "Is there any difference between the bodies of fairies and witches? Some special organ that allows them to produce a certain type of magic?"

Stella shook her head, finally brushing her hair behind her ear. "Oddly specific, but as far as I know, no. Does the appearance of wings during the transformation count?" She asked herself.

Marie paused for a second, but immediately resumed typing. "Transformation?"

"Yes, every fairy is capable of a transformation that allows her to use more magic. I can use magic in this form too, but when I transform, it just happens naturally."

To demonstrate, Stella extended her hand towards the mug next to the sink and it confidently began to levitate, but immediately fell into place. "Huh?" Stella frowned and looked at her palm. "This never happened before..."

Nick turned and raised his hand in the air, a translucent purple screen with many runes appeared on his palm and he pressed on it a couple of times, typing something. "That was my home's defense. Any non-registered magic user won't be able to complete even one spell, Wards will just suck out all the Magic from it. The fact that you managed to raise the mug even a centimeter is actually quite impressive and explains a couple of things."

What Nick didn't say is that the Wards took a sample of her magic, which he planned to use to recalibrate the sensor system.

"A good choice." Patrick nodded.

Stella, meanwhile, what the hell was happening on planet Earth for ordinary wizards to put such serious protection on their homes.

"So, what does that explain?" Bloom asked with interest. She clung to every chance to learn more about magic.

Nick stretched the screen with his hands and turned it towards the table. The screen started levitating and showed a magic circle on the left and a blob of light on the right. "These are the structures of two spells with the same effect," he began to explain. "The circle with lots of runes is what our beginners use to levitate small objects. And the light is what Stella used right now."

The difference and similarity of the two pictures was obvious. Even those who have never seen magic will be able to see the structure in a circle, how one rune almost imperceptibly passes into another, how the intersection of many lines forms geometric shapes and much more. What Stella used... well, it was hard to call it structured.

"You use magic based on positive emotions and most likely imagination, right?" Nick asked Stella and she nodded. "That means your magic does the lion's share of the work, shaping itself into a spell using your emotions as a catalyst. What your imagination is used for is pretty obvious, you envision the result and it happens." Nick snapped his fingers and lit up a small purple magic circle above his hand. "We use mathematics and the latest discoveries in science to create and use our spells, cold logic, zero emotions." He stopped, thinking of Indranil's stories about gods. "At least that's how most people use magic."

Stella didn't take it well. For her and for many others, magic was something, you know, magical! Wave your hand and you can grow flowers; one thought and your enemies will be thrown back by the force field! Seeing how magic was used by people on Earth made her feel uncomfortable. Shouldn't magic be a little more interesting than what Nick described?

Bloom felt the same way, but she could understand why they were using magic the way they did. If what Patrick said was true, then humanity was cut off from most of the universe with no way to get help from the magical realm. No information, no help, no backup. Only millions and billions of people who were forced to fight for themselves.

There was a loud knock on the front door, interrupting all thoughts. Patrick looked sharply at Nick, and then out the window, trying to make out who was standing near the door. "Wards?"

"Nothing. Either a normal person, or someone throws stones very accurately," Nick immediately replied, leaving the kitchen. The wizards stood up, – excluding Marie – ignoring the worried looks of the other guests. "Or it's something else." He said darkly and went to the front door.

Patrick and Joylin followed him until Igor and Ekaterina shoo-ed Prices' away from the window. Stella also prepared for battle, but remembered that her magic would be useless in this house, so with a sigh, she also joined the family of three.

"Yes?" Nick asked through the door.

Now, there are a couple of things that should be mentioned right now. When Nick was fixing the old door, he decided he'd better not worry about it anymore, so he made the door virtually indestructible. Even the best shields in the world couldn't compare to the power of the door, which was charged by sufficiently strong Wards.

But if the door was indestructible, the hinges... were not.

With a loud crash, the door was kicked inward, sending an indestructible piece of wood straight into Nick's chest, not expecting this, he barely had time to react and caught it with his bare hands. There was a sound of banging on the glass in the kitchen, this time without anything being broken. With a quiet grunt, Nick threw the door aside, getting a first look at the idiot who decided to attack the meeting of the six most powerful beings on this planet.

A blue-skinned creature with a beefy build bent down to pass through the doorway. Dirty, black hair, a look full of hatred and a twitchy nose, this troll looked like a dog trying to sniff out its prey. Instead of clothes, he wore a thick, spiked leather belt to cover his genitals and metal bracers around his wrists.

Little red creatures peeked out from behind his legs – ghouls – and even further away stood an annoyed yellow troll, he looked smarter than the first.

"The fairy is here. Give us the girl and we leave." The blue troll growled, its pupils twitching from person to person.

Nick raised his hand, signaling his friends not to attack. "My house – my problems." Identical purple magic circles appeared on his palms, it was the same spell he showed the young Cyphers, but much more powerful. "Joylin, check the wards, they should have roasted the bastards by now."

The troll snarled like a wild animal and lunged at Nick, only to get a bolt of lightning in his face. The creature got thrown back and the first troll crashed into the second. Nick felt a surge of magic from the kitchen and nodded to himself. Catherine placed a barrier of confusion on the house and its surroundings, so that everyone who saw what they should not just shake their heads and forget about the strange incident in a couple of minutes.

Leaving the house, Nick looked at his opponents. There were dozens of ghouls in the street ready to jump on his throat at any moment, the trolls were already on their feet, ready to attack again.

As if Nick would give them a chance.

Throwing his arms out to the sides, he sent chain lightning at the ghouls, exploding more than half in a golden spark. "Magic constructs? And weak ones, too. Are you here to kill or play a prank?" Another pair of lightning bolts struck the trolls' chests, making them cry out in pain.

Knut couldn't understand what was going on. First, this red-haired fairy thwarted their plans, and now this wizard! There shouldn't be any wizards on Earth!! And who were those people next to him?! Damn, he should have put on his glasses! The Queens will be so disappointed!

Nick, having no idea what Knut was thinking, blew up the remaining ghouls and grabbed the trolls by the throats with telekinesis, his arms extended forward. The blue troll boasted about the air near his throat, but Knut already knew that this operation was a bust. He clapped his hands over his head and vanished into a puff of smoke, Nick's grip vanishing from his neck.

Nick blinked and looked at the remaining troll. He sagged in his grip, but still breathing, Nick didn't squeeze his throat hard enough to block his breath. "Can you tell me where your friend disappeared to?" He received no answer, not even a twitch.

Shrugging, Nick lowered the troll to its feet and wrapped it in conjured metal chains. Catherine and Igor went out into the street, Stella and Bloom not far behind. "Is that all? I was expecting more, to be honest," Igor muttered, looking at the unresponsive blue-skinned troll.

As soon as Stella saw the troll, she let out a quiet "Oh."

"So, there was no need to call backup?" Everyone turned to look at the blonde and she began to nervously pull on the hem of her dress.

Nick sighed heavily and turned around completely, dragging the troll behind him. "So, we'll have more visitors?"

Instead of answering, a little further down the road, a blue spinning portal opened up from which four guys came out, some strange laser weapon at the ready.

The blond guy with a blue longsword in his right hand, and a shield in his left was the first one to come out of the portal. He was quite tall, but still shorter than Nick, like the other guys, except for the ginger one, he has a well-built body with strong arms and a very muscular torso. His blue eyes fell on the bound troll and he relaxed, looking at the situation in confusion.

Next was a guy with a similar build, tanned skin, brown eyes, short brown hair, and a two-handed green sword in his hands. He only relaxed when he saw the blond lower his weapon, which didn't go past Nick's eyes.

The third was the thinnest of the four, a guy with light brown-orange hair, red-framed glasses and a futuristic gun.

The last to emerge from the portal was the most muscular of the four. Indigo-colored eyes, short red-violet spiked back hair with only two bangs framing his face. In his hands was a curved crimson sword.

All four wore the same skin-tight navy-blue uniforms with white accents and blue cloaks held up by jeweled brooches the color of their weapons.

Nick was sure that Catherine was about to have an aneurysm.

"What in the seven fucks are you wearing?" Catherine asked in annoyance as she approached the guy with the blaster and lifted his cape. Nick and the rest of the sorcerers were already used to her opinions about clothes and Bloom more or less expected this, but Stella and the newly arrived "cavalry" were definitely not ready for it.

"The materials are good enough, definitely not spandex, but these rags won't save you from blunt blows or a sword. Why aren't you wearing an armor?" her eyes flashed yellow and she scowled. "No enchantments. Nick, I'm leaving before they upset me even more." Catherine turned on her heel and disappeared from the street.

The guy stood still, even more confused than before. "Err... What just happened?"

"Your fashion sense was put under the knife, that's what happened," Igor replied with a chuckle.

"Sky!" Stella threw herself into the hands of the brunette and he caught her easily. "Guys, meet the Specialists, this is Prince Sky, my boyfriend." Sky raised his free hand and waved to everyone, the hilt of his sword already hanging from his belt. "Riven," the violet-haired guy grunted, unhappy that all the action was already over. "Timmy," the poor boy was still trying to recover from Catherine's words, even if they weren't directed at him, so he didn't react at all. "And Brandon, Prince Sky's squire."

Nick felt the weariness fall on his shoulders, today was far from the most stressful of his life, but with all the new discoveries he just didn't want to continue this circus today.

"Well, hello? Thanks for taking care of that troll." Sky said with a smile on his face. "But who are you?"

"We are part of a secret magical society on Earth that existed before the time of the writing of the Bible. Very interesting, very strange, and now I'm going to fix my door. Igor, please explain to our guests what's going to happen."

The older man nodded and with a smile full of teeth began to speak.