My Path to Magic 2: A Combat Alchemist by Irina Syromyatnikova

demanding that a white work with a necromancer was akin to requesting him to perform suicide: watching a forbidden spell casting would have caused a stroke in white mages. Luckily, Dennis was a regular guy with no propensity to any magic.
    "Do you want me to call a car for you?" Mr. Felister asked hopelessly, studying the list of chemicals.
    The young magician almost choked on his salad: "Can we wait here till evening?"
    " Yes, surely," Dennis started up. "The heat will abate in a couple of hours."
    " Then I'll leave you with my assistant; I have some urgent business to attend to," the senior curator summed up cruelly. "I'll book a car and Dennis will take you to the hotel. Do you have any other needs?"
    T he dark mage shook his head in denial.
    "Have a nice evening!"
    Looking at the retreating back of his superior, Dennis guessed that his first independent assignment wouldn't be simple. He recalled a favorite saying among curators: "We all know it is not easy to deal with the dark magicians, but only curators know how it is not easy."
    The necromancer finished his meal, ordered fresh newspapers and a refill of tea, and immersed himself in reading. Dennis diligently waited - support services didn't employ hyperactive personalities. After about half an hour the dark mage noticed the presence of the interlocutor.
    "Do you know by chance if there are artisans in your city?"
    "There are some," Dennis didn' t deny.
    "And what do you do with them?"
    The young curator tried to recall the events of the last few months.
    "We carry on our fight for the minds of people. They spread rumors - we refute them and engage in educational work, as everywhere else."
    The magician chuckled incredulously: "We apprehended a couple of their leaders and numerous small shots in Redstone over the last three years. Have you heard about it, or do you get all your news from the mass media?"
    " I do not know all the details," Dennis reacted philosophically to the distrust of the dark. "The artisans behave more quietly in the capital, where there is a policeman or two on every corner. They have no space to breathe here!"
    The dark mage pulled on his eyebrows and continued reading. Dennis decided to add to his charge's dossier "he is persevering and provident". How many combat mages take the time to learn in advance in what environment they will have to operate?
    "Your boss mentioned a suite in the ministry hotel…What's this?"
    "It's more of a room really, in the local tradition, without an in-unit kitchen and bathtub."
    The m inistry's management would have placed visiting darks into shared rooms to save more money on guests, but a shared dark room would end in murder.
    The magician sin gled out the detail most important for him: "Where can I take a bath then?"
    "In the capital, it is customary to bathe in special outbuildings called bathhouses."
    And it wasn't cheap; the high cost of bathhouse tickets taught people to save precious water much more efficiently than any sermon: water came to the city via an aqueduct, the capacity of which was limited. When the city experienced water shortages, public bathing facilities were the first to close. But the northerner didn't need to know about these subtleties.
    "Hmm. It's quite unusual. Women and men together?"
    "No, in separate compartments. Sometimes on different days."
    The magician became somber, but not for long.  The conversation slipped to the urban attractions. Surprisingly, the guy was not interested in normal "dark" entertainments like camel racing and dog fighting. Instead, his unhealthy attention was drawn to the local drama theatre.
    "What is on there?" Tangor revived.
    " The Rainbow Curse ", the curator was stunned. Never before had he heard of a dark who had an interest in cultural events.
    "What is it about?"
    "About the Dark Ages," Dennis wriggled - he wasn't an avid theater-goer.
    "Will you buy me a ticket?"
    "I doubt it," the curator admitted. "The play is on its second week since the