They hit the barricade and climbed over just as easily as when they arrived, despite their attempts at getting magic to work and the heat making them uncomfortable. Murry Street was still quiet. Even now, a week in, the emptiness caught them off guard.

  "You think they caught Parmo soaking himself earlier?" Joked Lee as he pointed to the cameras.

  "I hope so," laughed Paul. "If we ever get home it's getting saved in the discord chat."

  "Fuck you guys," grinned Parmo.

  The lads reached the end of Murry Street and turned onto the main road. People were out and about here, some chatting as the friends passed, others working on whatever task they'd been assigned. The effort to make sure everyone had what they needed, or at least as much as was reasonable in this strange situation, was ongoing.

  "So, you think we're definitely the first to crack magic?" Asked Liam. "For all we know, there could be some random dude sat in his house shouting Accio TV remote as we speak."

  "Man can you imagine. It works and hits him in the face." Said Parmo.

  Ste looked over as they walked. "I mean, we did a fair bit of trial and error to get it to work so, maybe? But I dunno."

  They reached the steps of the Civic Centre a few minutes later. Its large glass doors were propped open and a man wheeled out an old speaker system on a trolley. It was heading towards what looked like a stage with a small generator and wires. Mike stood beside it.

  "Hey man, we're back," Grinned Paul as Mike turned his attention to them. "You guys planning a rave or something?"

  "Sadly not. We're missing the glow sticks and fog machine." Laughed Mike. "You lot alright?"

  At the mention of a fog machine, the boys turned as one to look at Ste, who grinned.

  "We're good," Paul said. "Had a bit of a breakthrough."

  Mike's expression sharpened. He gave them a once-over. "Breakthrough?"

  Ste nodded. "We figured out how to cast magic. Each of us has a spell. There's a new tab in the UI for it."

  "I figured something had happened. You lot walked out of town earlier like you knew something the rest of us didn't." Said Mike, gesturing in the direction of Murray Street. "Then the UI pinged and half a dozen people came running over asking, 'What's all this about magic being used for the first time?'"

  "That'd be Lee's fault," Liam said, deadpan. "He was the first to cast a spell."

  Lee raised both hands. "I mean yeah but it could have been any of us. Now we can help other people figure it out."

  Mike smiled. "Honestly, I'm glad it was you lads. Some people would hoard that sort of thing y'know? Maybe try to turn this situation into their own little empire in the making..."

  "Yeah, definitely. Can you imagine what this would look like if it was London and not Monkhaven? It would either be Game of Thrones or a warzone depending on what part showed up here." Said Liam.

  "Anyway, forget that. What happened?" Mike asked, bringing the conversation back on topic. They explained, and his eyes widened.

  They took turns describing their spells. Parmo cast Snowburst to demonstrate, soaking himself immediately to everyone's amusement.

  When they were done, Mike nodded slowly.

  "Yeah, this changes things," he said.

  Paul grunted. "No kidding."

  "No, I mean, this is good," Mike continued. "People have been anxious since this all began. Wondering if we can actually survive out here, if we're going to make it. But magic?" He shook his head. "This proves we can adapt. We can grow beyond what we brought with us."

  Lee tilted his head. "So you're not worried?"

  "I'd be a fool not to be but I'm trying to be smart about it," Mike replied. "People are going to have questions. The moment the UI alerted everyone that magic had been used, I knew we needed to talk. That's why I've been getting the stage ready." He gestured around. "We're planning an open meet tonight. Nothing fancy, just a chance to let people know and answer some questions to try and make sure everyone is calm and remains positive."

  "We'll come," Liam offered. "Might help if they hear it from the people who caused the UI alert."

  Mike nodded. "Yeah, that'd help. Just be honest about it. Show them it's real and it's possible."

  "Yeah we can do that," Parmo said. "Assuming I don't freeze myself solid first."

  They all chuckled—even Mike.

  He paused then. "Just so I know… you lot still feel like yourselves?"

  They all glanced at one another.

  Lee spoke for them. "Yeah we're still us. The magic hasn't really changed anything, it's more that it materialised in different ways depending on our personality than anything the other way round, if that's what you're worried about?"

  "Good," Mike said. "Because if magic's tied to who we are, then it's best to stay grounded. That's the thing that'll keep this from going off the rails."

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  They nodded.

  Mike turned back toward the generator. "We're meeting at eight. I'll send word around town so people know to show up. I need to sort the mic and make sure we have enough seating. So far we've had a few of these and a fair few people usually show up but for something like this I can imagine it will be a bigger crowd. Go get some food. I'll see you tonight."

  They went to leave, but Ste paused. "Just a thought I wanted to bring up, Mike."

  "Yeah?" Mike replied, glancing over his shoulder.

  "I don't know if anyone else's noticed this, but the town and the marina... they fit too well where we are now. There's no flooding where the boats landed, no damage around the waterline. It's like the land just accepted it. Outside of the streets that were cut off, there's no sign of any real impact."

  Mike stared at him for a moment, then nodded slowly.

  "Yeah, I've noticed too. So have a couple others," he said. "Thing is, we don't have answers yet. Once we do, people will know. But right now? It's just weird. No point panicking people over something we can't explain."

  Ste nodded. "Fair enough. Just wanted to make sure you knew something felt off about all this."

  "Appreciate it," Mike said. "Anyone finds anything that could answer this, I'll let you know."

  The boys agreed and filed out, heading back down the steps toward the pub.

  ***

  The King John's had become the town's unofficial food hub. Lauren, a woman who had worked hospitality before everything had happened just over a week prior, had set up a system over the past few days. People could come in, grab a plate and a drink, no payment needed. The mix on offer was strange: salvaged supplies from the town's shops, carefully rationed; stored goods they'd managed to organize into the pub's kitchen; and increasingly, fresh fish pulled from the marina. No one recognised the fish they had caught, but it tasted like cod so it was eaten all the same. The water's edge wasn't far from where the town had landed, and the towns history as a fishing village was becoming more relevant as the days passed. Everyone was eating now, and that was what mattered.

  The lads headed to the counter where the now familiar Lauren was arranging sandwiches on paper plates. A quick nod, a thanks, and they were handed plates and bottles of water. Liam went through his vegetarian salad sandwich, checking for anything that might be a cause for concern. He remembered the time he ate a bag of chicken flavoured crisps he thought were vegetarian friendly. They weren't and he never heard the end of how horrible he was from his idiot mates.

  They found a quiet corner of the beer garden, away from the few other groups scattered about under umbrellas. The afternoon heat pressed down, relentless, but at least there was shade.

  Lee set his plate down and exhaled slowly, the weight of the day catching up with him now that they'd stopped moving.

  "Well," Parmo said, taking another bite despite his earlier verdict. "That happened."

  "Yeah," Ste said, settling into the bench. "We actually did magic."

  Paul leaned back, arms folded. "Still can't believe it worked. Like, properly worked."

  "It worked because we made it work," Liam said. "That's the mad bit. It wasn't some spell book or ritual. It was just... us."

  Lee nodded, still processing. "Yeah. That's what Mike said too. Magic's tied to who we are. How we think."

  "Which is either brilliant or terrifying," Parmo muttered.

  "Both," Ste said. "Definitely both."

  They ate in silence for a moment, the reality of the day settling around them like dust.

  Lee pulled up his UI, scrolling through the different tabs with idle curiosity. Status. Inventory. Magic. He flicked between them a few times, getting a feel for how everything was organized.

  "I bet new spells show up in here," he said, more thinking aloud than asking. "Like, when we learn something new. I wonder if there'll be labels or something? Power levels and Spell types? I know some of the stuff we have so far has element affinity in the extended details."

  Ste looked at his own spell tab. "Yeah, like a kind of spell book."

  Liam tilted his head, something clicking. "Hang on, has anyone tried casting by saying the name of the spell and just holding their hand out. Like after it got put in our magic tab? This thing seems smart enough to realise what we're aiming for. If it's like a spell book then that would make sense right?"

  "Only one way to find out," Paul said. He pulled up his Magic tab and looked at his spell. Ember Blast. Simple enough. He took a breath, thought the name with the intent to use it, and then punched upward.

  Nothing fancy. No visualization, no building the magic up like before. Just a quick burst of fire that shot out from his fist before fading in the air above them.

  "Shit," he said quietly. "That actually worked."

  "Yeah that was fast, you just think the name of the spell?" Liam asked, leaning forward.

  "Yeah. Just thought I want to cast Ember Blast and punched. And it worked. Simple as."

  Parmo was already trying it, pulling up his Snowburst. The same thing—a small burst of cold air, frost crystallizing on the table for a split second before melting.

  "That's..." Ste didn't finish the sentence. He just looked at his own tab, then at his friends.

  "That's huge," Lee finished for him. He tested his own spell. Electricity arcing between his fingers at a thought.

  "So the first time," Liam said slowly, "we needed all that stuff. The emotion, the knowledge, the intent. All of it together."

  "But now it's locked in," Ste said, understanding dawning. "We've got it in the Tab. We just... access it."

  Lee stared at his fingertips where the electricity had been. "Our Magic Tab is literally a spell book. And we can just pull spells from it whenever we want."

  "Without all the visualization nonsense," Parmo added, looking almost stunned.

  "Yeah, without any of that anime crap," Paul said. "Just think it and it happens."

  They sat with that for a moment, the full weight of what they'd just discovered settling in.

  "Ok, we need to do a lot of testing on this going forward." Ste thought aloud. "If we assume we're going to have to defend ourselves at some point, say from wolves or something, then we're gunna want to know if this stuff has a cost. If we can now cast way faster then the likelihood we run out of mana or something like that is way higher. Best we know if there's a cost before we get into anything like that."

  "Yeah, that's a good point," Liam said carefully. "Last thing we need is to pass out while something tries to take a chunk out of us."

  "Definitely," Lee agreed. "We should make a note of anything we think of that we want to figure out before we get carried away with anything else really."

  "Before all of that, we need to get through this meeting first." Muttered Parmo.

  "True." Said Paul. "We should probably start with that. Who wants to be the main speaker at this thing?"

  They all looked at each other, no one really wanting to have that many eyes on them.

  "What if we don't?" Ste said. "Have one main speaker, I mean. We each say something instead. That way it's not like one of us is the magic expert everyone asks later."

  Lee felt relief wash over him at that suggestion, even if the idea of speaking still made his stomach tighten.

  "Yeah, that works," Liam said. "We each handle a section we feel confident speaking about."

  "I can do some talking," Parmo offered. "I do client calls over video for work. Not to a crowd like this, but... yeah."

  "We'll figure it out," Paul said. "Between the five of us, we can make it work."

  Lee nodded, not entirely convinced but willing to try. The others seemed confident enough, he just needed to man up and get it done.

  "Right then," Ste said, pushing his empty plate away. "We should probably head back, get a shower in before we have to do this."

  "Yeah," Liam agreed. "Few hours to chill before eight."

  They cleaned up their area and headed back towards the flat, the afternoon heat still pressing down but at least they had a plan now. It wasn't much, but it was something.