The Licensed Mage

11 Semblence

        The morning seemed to drag on, feeling as if hours had passed. When in reality only 40 minutes went by. Raven had finished updating various reports and Henry spent the morning working on his own reports with occasional glances and smirks Raven’s way. Shortly afterwards the Captain came out of his office with some news and called a meeting, and to make sure Raven attended this one the man kept him chained to his desk and held the meeting there.

        “Just got a call from the mayor. He’s assigning some new recruits to our division. They should be here within the week.”

        “Recruits?” Raven propped his feet on his desk as he sipped from his 3rd cup of coffee for the day, “What use are they going to be?”

        “C’mon Black. You remember being a newbie.”

        Henry smirked around his straw as he leaned on his desk. Raven looked around to give him a glare.

        “That was a long time ago.”

        “Shut it the both of you.” The Captain pinned them both with a glare and continued with his news, feeling as if a teacher with a couple of rowdy kids, “They’ll be sending 3 detectives from homicide and a new desk clerk. Detectives Andrew Rodrequiz, Anthony Conwell and Lucy DuBall and a Malvina Mave.”

        “Mave? They’re sending us another mage?”

        The Captain huffed as he stuffed his papers under his arm pointing a finger at Raven, “Yes. Ms. Dunsworth is still your partner. Ms. Mave will be coming in to handle paperwork and minuscule items. You will be treating them both with respect.” Raven mumbled a ‘yeah yeah’ as he took another sip of his drink and the Captain turned to Henry, “Keep an eye on this idiot. Make sure he treats his co-workers with respect.”

        “Aye, aye, Captain.”

        Raven shot Henry another glare as he mockingly saluted the Captain. Captain shook his head as he walked back to his office but stopped remembering one last thing, “Oh, Tanks!”

        “What?” Henry swiveled around in his chair as he played with the straw, rolling it between his fingers.

        “DuBall is your new partner.”

        With that the Captain opened his office door to another shrilling phone, muttering as he went in. Henry could only stare as the door closed and turned around in his seat.

        “You hear dat! I’m gettin’ a new partn’r!”

        “Yeah, yeah.”

        “I wond’r if sh’ll be predy?”

        “Oh I’m sure she’ll be ‘purdy’.”

        Raven bit his tongue to keep from laughing as a paper ball bounced off his head, “Mock me all you want. I’m gettin’ lucky.”

        Raven strained to keep from rolling his eyes as Henry bounded up and went to get himself a snack from the break room. As the room falls quiet, or what passes as quiet in the morning rush of New York, Raven pulled out a pack and quickly lit a cigarette as he pulled a file into his lap.

        “You know those things are bad for you. Why do you smoke anyways?”

        Coffee spilled on his shirt as he jumped in his chair. He cursed under his breath as he pushed the file out of harm’s way and grabbed some paper napkins from his desk, dabbing at the stain. His eyes found Claire standing with her hands behind her as she tried not to laugh. He hated to admit it but she did look better than before.