Chapter 7

Dusty was surprised when Lee and Sean also gave hers and James’s parents magical boxes.

While the parents only received two gem novice boxes, she knew they would find a lot of uses for the new skills they learnt. She chuckled to herself as she realised the activities in their bedrooms would become a lot more interesting for them, too. James’ big grin and wink confirmed that he had also thought of this aspect.

As to the new shifting ability and the possible change to their relationship, she decided to have a chat with James in private. While neither of them had found any need to seek sex out of their relationship, she knew living in a ship with ten other magicians might affect this status quo.

She did enjoy the kiss she got from Sean and decided he was still hot and a definite temptation for any female. She knew Lee had knocked James’ socks off, but then Lee had the same effect on all of the males, so James wasn’t the only guy surreptitiously readjusting their hardware after their encounter with Lee.

The crew had all listened carefully as Lee explained the reason for the different items in their boxes and how wearing the items, would make them strong magicians. The Novices and three gem Mages all received a diadem, a medallion, a ring, a new Mad, and a baton that extended into a fighting stave. The batons could also be used as wands.

The four Enforcers got the new upgraded item that looked like flexible metallic vambraces. The braces had a Mad in the middle of them, and the larger gems with their symbols surrounding it. They also received a baton. Sean showed them that their old data had been transferred to the new devices once they slid it on.

The mages’ and novices’ new Mads were similar to their old ones but had a lot more functionality. All of these devices had a removable pad that extended into a larger style of tablet. The four new enforcers were not aware that their vambraces made them even stronger magicians than the people with the regular Mads and normal magical items.

Lee decided that they could work it out for themselves. She was intrigued that the medallions Dusty and James wore had stayed with them. She had a feeling that these four, in particular, would be interesting people to keep an eye on.

Everyone was fascinated to find that they had received a few new items with the magical boxes. For one, Lee had included a magical backpack. She explained that the magical box for the items, the separate food storage box and the backpacks all had access to dimensional spaces.

The backpacks would also disappear and not impede their progress when moving in tight situations. They only had to call on them for them to reappear. They could put a lot of items in them as long as they could fit the items in through the openings.

The backpack had the largest opening and space to access. The boxes did have a limited space of a couple of cubic metres, but the bag had four times the cubic space they did.

The boxes for their magical items also had a large bag of the magical Quaz crystals for them to store extra magical energy in and to use for some spells. Sean explained that the crystals made great batteries and could even be used as torches. He had added his version of a crystal torch, a larger lantern and one of his electrical power boxes to their backpacks for them.

After the initial ceremony and gift-giving, Lee had them all sit down again.

Dusty had to laugh at Aaron and Bindy.

The couple were so excited at becoming mages that they had both hugged James and her exuberantly, several times. She guessed that they would be some of the most attentive students they would get, as they had both seen her and James using their skills and knew that it wasn’t all fun and games.

Lee’s warnings about good magical behaviour and etiquette were not lost on the couple either. Dusty noticed that many of the others also realised that they did have a duty of care to use these new skills wisely and not to hurt others with them unless they had to.

Lee also educated the group on the best ways to subdue or stop wrongdoers and gave all of them a separate box containing what she called cuffs. She explained they could put spells on the cuffs to inhibit specific behaviours.

They had to include the minimum time and the conditions the wearer was subject to until they complied. Only then would the cuff return to whoever placed it on them. The cuffs also had an entity that would monitor the wearer.

The entity could also tell if the cuff was being placed on an innocent person or if the person was lying to the Enforcer or Shield, so the cuff could be used as a lie detector, too. The entity could also suppress the wearer’s magical abilities if the wrong use of them was why the person had been cuffed.

They all found this a sobering thought.

Lee then went on to explain hexes. These were more permanent and generally only used if the wrongdoer failed to learn after being cuffed. They could also suppress the magical abilities of the wearer.

She told them that only wizards who were Lord Wizards or higher could evoke the third punishment of cryo-sleep. The last step was only done if it was believed that the person could not be stopped from killing or seriously hurting others.

She then educated the group about killing people. They were expected to protect themselves and their team in hostile situations but only use extreme force to save lives that were in danger.