My Path to Magic by Irina Syromyatnikova

complaining that we would have to wait a bit for the transport to go home (she did not need to know about the quarantine).  Meanwhile, my theoretical knowledge of the otherworldly was enriched with practical content: doctors began inviting us for reception of new patients and suppression of the most violent—only the dark magicians were able to react properly and quickly enough to the attacks of the consciousnesses, plagued by the otherworldly.  I dealt with children: many, many children with smiles, jerky movements, and unpredictable mood swings.  In each of my little patients I seemed to see Lyuchik, and soon I clearly understood that my white family must move out of Krauhard.
    "The kids come from the Brand's Valley," Chief Harlik explained.  " A town with a lot of foreigners sprang up there in the last ten years.  Now the rules of dealing with the supernatural are taught in schools as the main subject; I would have started teaching them even earlier, but parents are against it—a child's psyche is unstable and all that stuff.  So now children are being taken to us, while their parents aren't; they die on spot because they don't know the rules half as well as their kids."
    Well, at least regarding knowledge of the rules, I wasn't worried for Lyuchik.
    For our voluntary assistance as nurse aides, we had accrued salary of one crown per day.  Together with twenty crowns, earned in less than two weeks during the expedition, our total amounted to nearly fifty.  Please note that it was earned through honest hard work!  Still, that money couldn't come close to solving my financial woes, and I started crying to Uncle about my bitter fate.  How could it happen that my father, a dark magician, did not leave any inheritance to his son?
    Uncle shrugged: "If you want to, I'll ask Harlik to find out what happened.  In his last years your father had no contact with me, but you're right, it does look strange.  Me—I am a mediocre alchemist, but he was a real magician, tough and mighty.  What happened to him?"
    It was so great to have good friends, even though for the dark it was the exception rather than the rule.
    We returned home with less than ten days left until the end of my summer vacation.  Joe hid the hives somewhere (though the bees were flying in the garden), but they didn't bother me anymore.  I had become a real dark magician, tough and brave.
    The time left before my return to Redstone was spent tastefully: I drove a moped around, scared cows, told stories of the King's Island to the younger ones (that were nothing like reality), helped Uncle Gordon catch up with the work that had accumulated in his garage over the past month, and collected rumors about events that took place in Krauhard.  Chief Harlik was right: everything pointed to the return of the ancient, legendary times.  I finally decided to talk about it with my stepfather.
    "Joe, I heard rumors that Krauhard is getting restless of late.  You ought to move somewhere closer to Redstone or to the capital."
    My stepfather sighed sadly: "We should.  But we have no money to move, Thomas, even if I immediately find a job after the move."
    "Then at least Lyuchik has to be sent away.  To some boarding school or maybe to your relatives, if you have any."
    "I'm thinking about it."
    I put my honestly earned fifty crowns on the table.  "Take this!  When I'm back at Redstone, I'll send you more.  Think harder."
    He hesitated, but didn't rush to take the money.  Another helpless white on my hands!
    "What now?"
    "You are so concerned for the family, you do so much for the kids… and I have never apologized to you!"
    "For what?" I did not understand.
    "I invaded your house, took the place of your father... perhaps, you're angry with me."
    I sighed.  How typical for the white to apply his standards to everybody.  And I thought he was an empath.
    "Have you not been lectured about the psychological differences in the school of magic?"
    "Yes I have, of