The clicking of a keyboard filled the small office as a screen glared on the glasses of the man typing.

  Not only was he looking carefully at the syntax before him, but listening to the faint chime of magic flowing from inside the machine. A slow and delicate process, but not one a Songbird like him can't handle.

  The weather outside had been dreadful all day and leading into the evening. But even if it were sunshine and rainbows, he'd definitely still be here with his work.

  The small collection of energy drinks next to the computer tower would be alarming to anyone unfamiliar with him. He sighed and took a sip of the latest addition. Storms were never good for his connection, but he had the best modem on the market, with a few upgrades of his own.

  This project was proving to be an even bigger hassle than first anticipated. Data and magic were like oil and water — you can cram them into the same system, but you have to really force it. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes as his phone went off; it was his old teacher...

  MESSAGE FROM - Anthon

  A: I need more colloidal silvery

  Of course he does. Any day now, he's gonna get a text saying his old teacher is suffering from argyria.

  J: youre lucky you havent turned blue yet

  After a few texts back and forth, he set his phone down and walked to a spare room cluttered with shelves of computer components, cables, and notebooks. It was the disorganized mess of an IT worker and would raise no eyebrows at first glance, even if there were a few shiny rocks with wires sticking out of them.

  The boxes of assorted chemicals, however, are of note. He and Tony had an agreement of sorts: he would store most of the supplies and assist him, and in return, the Magician of Mímir would be his sponsor and keep a lot of other mages off his back. Very few, it seemed, appreciated his work. They almost treat him just better than the church treats a heretic.

  Gathering a few bottles of silver to put aside, he looked at all the broken devices on the shelves. Old prototypes that were proof-of-concepts but far from successes. Regular circuit boards are not great at handling mythic forces. Actually, while he was here, he shot another text.

  J: Hey you need any more rock salt?

  He's gotten used to being the older man's quartermaster at this point. After waiting a few moments, he got a response.

  A: I'm not sure actually.

  A: Bring some.

  It took a good while to get Tony to trust using cellular devices again, especially after he tried to show off his work. He would never forget the look of dumbfounded confusion the professor had on his face when he answered the phone once, and a burst of wind hit him in the face. You should've seen it — glorious.

  Still, he would need so much more work before any other mage would take him seriously. The greater sphere draws on the weight of belief built up over countless generations, the weight of entire societies fueling the potency of old magic. The internet, in contrast, has been around just a bit longer than him. His magic might as well be sparks compared to the flamethrower of someone like Tony. However, his greatest advantage is the automation and sheer bandwidth. Sure, he can shove only the most basic hex into an email, but when you get a thousand of those at once, it gets the job done.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Hell of a way to say — You got mail.

  Putting the supplies in a box along with some other things, he tried to straighten some of the shelves — custom electronics that, at a closer look, would reveal little resistors made of tiny stones with runes cut into them. It took forever to carve those in with a Dremel, not to mention the scars. Almost every access point leading into his house was reinforced to conduct magic; the rest of the internet was a bigger issue. It's not like he could dig up the local fibre optic lines to enchant them.

  The real problem overall is the lack of suitable infrastructure. He has to rebuild all of his machines from scratch to run Runic without bursting into flames, so unless he was going for a full-on offensive, he had to limit his traffic.

  On the plus side, it did make hacking stupidly easy. Instead of picking a lock with numbers, he could send a spell to bully a firewall in ways no cyber security was ever designed to handle — your password? Guess what, it's now 'password' because I said it was. My IP? It shows I'm in the Atlantic; have fun!

  That being said, he wasn't entirely comfortable with blatantly ripping through other people's machines. Unless they're scammers — they can rot in hell. His biggest struggle so far was trying not to mix up his mage work with his mundane work; he really wouldn't want to explain to his coworkers why the laptop is screaming in a dead language.

  Thinking about it, there wasn't really anyone he could talk to about this sort of thing. Tony was a good friend and a great mentor, but even he had almost no frame of reference for what he's doing. A whole new school of magic — Tony has said countless upstarts tried and failed to reinvent the wheel. But this feels different, special — it feels like his.

  He had his teacher's respect, even their support, but his pride felt further off. Sitting back at his desk, he looked up at the frames on the wall, his parents' and sister's smiling faces. Next to that, a picture of him and Tony at his graduation; despite being the history professor, he was the one to hand him his diploma. The third frame containing said document.

  The University of Salem awards

  JAMES E. QUINN

  The degree of Associate of Science

  in Computer Information Technology.

  One of his proudest moments, only overshadowed by being recognized as a fully trained mage by the Magician of Mímir himself. They don't give diplomas for magic, but just being on speaking terms with certain individuals is, in itself, a sign of legitimacy among practitioners. Word of mouth goes a very long way — I'm certain it helps when those same words could potentially set you on fire.

  I wonder how outraged they would be?

  Knowing I had his direct tutelage, and yet dove headfirst in a direction even the Magician knows nothing about. Oh, they would be seething.

  "It can't be done," they said, but look at me now.

  The jealousy of his old classmates aside, as he typed away at his project, he knew it would be nice to sit down with the professor and catch up, maybe show him his latest breakthrough! He'll bring the fire extinguisher, just in case. He may even get to see Hannah — it's been ages since he's seen the young woman. If he gets there early, they will just have enough time to complete the distilling before she gets home.

  Speaking of distilling, Tony is going to lose his shit when he finds out his go-to catalyst works literal miracles in my PC's cooling system. Silver already had a high conductivity for heat. However, because dozens of cultures perceive the precious metal as mystical, the mythosphere just loves the stuff — great for stable circulation. Advantages aside, if you tried casting normal magic in proximity, it would probably explode.

  Yeah, definitely bring the extinguisher.