The Bookstore Mage

Lucien paced around the bedroom in his underwear. His eyes would occasionally glance at the phone settled on the desk. The call he had this morning... It seemed like it was not a scam call after all. Lucien hesitated for a few seconds before he grabbed his phone and opened the text once again.

'Dear Mr. Lucien, on behalf of the Hermits group, we would like to extend our sincere invitation to you and hope you can honor us with your presence today at 8 pm, Avenue Lancaster, building 101, where we will be holding our meeting to discuss the current studies and applications of magical spells.

Sincerely, The Hermits.'

The text was short, but it was enough to chase all the sleepiness away. The main glaring point of the text was the fact that these Hermits were mages, and it appears that they already know he is one.

'Could it be them that were following me yesterday?" He muttered while biting his nail. The whole situation had gotten him on edge. Lucien cautiously stepped toward the window and moved the curtains before he peeked into the street below. The light particles showed no strange presence, and he did not see any people lurking about.

This, however, did not ease his mind as Lucien began to overthink. "Are they spying on me with some weird magical spell?" His eyes darted around the room, but the flow of particles remained the same.

Yesterday, Lucien linked the floating particles with mana. The reason for that was that when he used magic, they moved. When he cast Imer, the telekinesis spell, they followed his will. So his best guess was that the particles were what was called mana, and each color represented an element.

Lucien wasn't sure, and he knew that he could be wrong, still, it felt right. Now that he saw no disturbance in the mana flow, Lucien forced himself to calm down.

"Panicking isn't going to solve, nor change anything. Think, they seemed very respectful when addressing me. That could mean a few things: Either mages are just genuinely nice people... I doubt it. They know I am a mage, but don't know the full extent of my capability. A reasonable guess could explain why they took the respectful approach. Maybe this whole meeting and sharing our ideas on spells and magic is their way of testing me?" He muttered while biting his nails.

"Or this could be a trap?" Thinking about that, Lucien quickly shook his head. They already know my name, they have my number, and they probably know where I live, why go through all of this just to set up a trap instead of magically teleporting here?"

Scratching his head, Lucien forced himself into the toilet. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and hopped in the shower.

"Now that I think about it, why the hell are mages using calls and texts to communicate? It doesn't sound very... Magical? Nor secure at that matter." With such thoughts running through his mind, Lucien made his way out of the shower, got dressed, and grabbed his cap and keys before leaving.

Glancing at the magic book on the desk, Lucien decided to be safe and cast Imer to move it under the bed. Satisfied, he closed the door behind him with the same spell and made his way downstairs. Casting magical spells was still as exciting as the first time. Just seeing all the doors open by themselves was enough to put a wide grin on his face.

Locking the bookstore behind him, Lucien turned to leave when he was stopped by a blonde high school girl. She was dressed in casual jeans and an oversized yellow hoodie, with a thick black jacket.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

Lucien raised his brow at the girl before answering, "I live here, what are you doing here?"

"You live here? What about the old man?" The girl's light brown eyes looked concerned as she asked.

"That was my grandfather, he sadly passed away leaving this place to me," Lucien answered with a sad smile.

The girl's eyes widened before she lowered her head, "I'm sorry for your loss. I used to come and hang around here, but the bookstore wasn't open for a week so I was afraid something might have happened."

"Thank you, and I'm happy to hear that grandpa still had regulars that came so often."

The girl nodded before answering: "He was a great man with a lot of stories."

Smiling, Lucien replied: "That he was. I didn't quite catch your name?"

"Ah sorry, of course, I'm Anna." She offered her hand.

Lucien shook it and introduced himself, "Pleasure to meet you, Anna, I'm Lucien."

"So, not to rush you or anything. I'm just wondering if you have any plans for opening the bookstore again? It was my little haven you know?"

"Ah, I understand what you mean! I've spent most of my childhood there, getting lost in the books."

"Yes, and although small, It's very cozy!" Added Anna with a smile, "Oh, damn I'm going to be late. It was a pleasure meeting you Lucien, but I'm afraid I have to go. I hope you'll take over the bookstore, I don't want my cozy place to close down for good. And once again, I'm sorry about your grandpa."

"It's okay, and I'm definitely thinking about it." Saying that Lucien waved goodbye to her and then made his way toward the coffee shop he went to yesterday for breakfast. It was cheap and tasty, so why look elsewhere?

*****

The morning passed uneventfully, with Lucien constantly checking his phone for messages. He then spent the afternoon locked at home studying the magic book, while practicing Imer. Lucien also didn't forget to revise the healing spell's mana flow and hand gestures.

Lunch was ordered from outside again, and before he knew it, the clock was already pointing at 7 pm. The nerves came back as he thought of the meeting with the strange Hermits. He just hoped nothing bad was going to happen.

Pulling the address on his phone, Lucien frowned at the thought of the cab fare, as the place was a distance away. "Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess?"

Trying to think positively, Lucien wore his grandad's favorite black suit with an equally black shirt for good luck. He studied his reflection in the mirror for a few seconds, fixing his messy hair before he nodded in satisfaction.

Using Imer, he once again sent the magic book under the bed and grabbed his coat and keys, and left with feelings of excitement and nervousness.