#lets roll

Virgil shakes Logan’s hands off, ignoring the lingering sting in his shoulders. 

“But I could do all that before I could do magic!”

“What are you talking about?” Logan sighs, exasperated, “You’re a sorcerer.”

“If I was caught doing magic growing up I would have been executed,” Virgil hisses pointedly, considering that Logan should already know this fun fact about his underground home, “Everyone can do the glow thing and summon shadows. That’s not magic! I didn’t have magic until two years ago.”

Virgil doesn’t mention Remus’s other accusations about ‘jumping too high’ and ‘falling too slow’ and running ‘too fast’ or ‘too far,’ because those are definitely natural. So what if he was outmatched in speed and agility in his regiment? Being agile isn’t magic, he just takes good care of his legs and exercises properly. It’s not his fault everyone else is so slow.

...Virgil doesn’t mention Remus’s other accusation about speaking with animals because he doesn’t want to think about that one.

“What is the definition of magic?” Logan asks, with the tone of a teacher quizzing a student who had fallen asleep at their desk. Virgil rolls his eyes,

“It’s the…” 

Well.

“..How should I know?!” He huffs, flipping his hood back up over his head and folding his arms to be completely covered under his cloak, like that will make him suddenly invisible to a man standing inches away.

Logan muffles a chuckle at his expense, then continues, “Magic is the ability possessed by some individuals to manipulate the ambient energies of the world to produce desired results in ways typically impossible by physical means, either through personal mental effort or in collaboration with the mental effort of an outside entity. At least, that’s the most widely accepted definition in the art.”

Logan reaches out, slowly, to lift Virgil’s hood as he speaks,

“Could another person — say, Patton — reasonably be expected to turn themselves into shadow at will though physical effort?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Virgil grumbles, trying to imagining it. “Has he tried it?”

“I think we both know that it would be impossible. No offense to him, of course.”

“None taken.” Patton giggles from their left, updating Virgil on where he’s standing. Virgil wishes there weren’t so many people in their group who like to shuffle around in circles while he can’t see.

“In that case,” Logan retracts his hand, leaving Virgil to wonder what he did that for in the first place, “Did you never assume that the powers that be in your hometown simply decided what was ‘magic’ and what was not on a whim, in order to use that law as a pretense for execution?”

“Of course they did. They’re assholes.”

“So why are you so determined to call your magic something else? You believe what they said about your supposedly-not-magic abilities, but are aware they were lying to you. You realize that no one here will hurt you for having it, right?”

Virgil pauses for a moment, taking that in. He doesn’t exactly believe Logan that no one here will hurt him for having magic, but he is a little embarrassed to not have noticed that contradiction before. 

“You’ve been using magic your entire life. You’re just old enough now to be accessing more powerful spells.” Logan says with some finality, and Virgil can feel the way he’s smiling about it. 

“Hooray for me.” Virgil scoffs, dripping with sarcasm. It stings his throat a little, because of the damn faewild and its damn rules, but he’ll take it.

“Now, there is something to be said about how one of those spells you seem to be using purportedly no longer exists, but you’ve done that before.” Logan mumbles, “I would like to know what you mean about not having magic until two years ago.”

Before Virgil can even sweat about being asked such a question, Dee thankfully interrupts,

“The three of us were exploring some random cave system, and Virgil and Remus touched some radioactive rock,” Dee sighs, voice tinged with annoyance, but Virgil knows he’s more upset about the secret being out than the fact that it happened. “Since then, they’ve been having magical symptoms.”

Virgil can hear Roman’s affronted squawk to his left, “What symptoms?!”

“Oh my god, chill, I’m not hurt.” Remus sing-songs next to him, the sound of rustling fabric indicating that he’s started wrestling him again.

“—Pft! I wasn’t worried about you!”

“A tear in the Weave, perhaps?” Logan hums, “That would explain the wild magic. I would like to explore this place, eventually.”

“Too bad,” Dee chirps, and Virgil can practically hear the maliciously bemused smirk on his face, “None of us remember where we were. Unless you want to scour the entire mountain?”

“If I have the time.” Logan replies, completely seriously. Dee definitely didn’t like that answer, but Virgil can’t help but feel fond.

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