Aiden squirmed a little in his seat as Eve made no move to leave the car behind instead swivelling further to give him a once over taking in his overly neat clothes steamed so hard it appeared the fabric was constructed more from angles than actual cloth. She was less interested in the clothes and more interested in the face, he was a pale kid closer in appearance to a piece of paper that had been splashed with little droplets of ink than anything else, his blonde hair buzzed close to a short duckling fuzz. To Eve he looked young and more troublesome than any riotous teenager or wanton vandal. Those kinds of seventeen-year-olds would not want to get involved with the work she had to get through while being saddled with the obligatory voluntary hours that made up her contract with Curse-be-Gone. She was going to have to set down the ground rules on top of the safety warning, she just hoped like hell he would listen to her even with the obvious lack of respect he had for her. 

“Alright, we need to go through some rules and test a few things before I take you to see our first client.” 

“You mean there is a cursed person in that house.” He tried to peer past her, as though he could will his sight to drill through the walls of the average looking suburban house with kids’ toys strewn across the yard behind them, the threat of a moment ago, forgotten. Eve resisted the easy retort holding it in with a small eye roll. 

“Look I’ve already told you not to get too excited. Remember it’s not like the comics.” She rubbed her temple pretending to fiddle with her glasses. Only one day, just one day to get through, she could do this then back to her own controlled routine. Sarah had promised this would wipe her volunteering hours clean for over a year. 

“Now listen carefully. Whatever Mr Samson said to you I have some rules of my own. You are here as an observer only, that means no touching stuff in client’s houses, no talking to the clients if you can help it, and absolutely no attempting to break a curse.” 

“But...” 

“No.” Eve snapped her gaze boring a hole through Aiden. He felt like any second, she would smite him with a lightning bolt. 

“You are not trained in how to do this job, you are a visitor, you leave where you visit as you found it.” 

“Were you ever a Scout?” 

“What?” 

“Well I swear that’s you know the scout motto or something. You’ve got to have heard it right.” 

Aiden’s words slowly died out from the cold gaze directed at him. 

“Back to what we’re actually doing so we can get to the job?” 

“Er ah sure.” 

“Right now, for the test.” Eve flickered on her witch sight the green of her eyes refracted even more into a luminous glow. From her view, she could now trace energy patterns that were barely describable to those who did not have the gift. She had once had a conversation with a Hellhound about how it was to be able to track the world with smell better than they could see it. The Hellhound’s deep sigh at trying to explain something she would never be able to experience had been interrupted by her laughing and explaining about her sight, this had cemented a long friendship based on how ridiculous the world was. 

“Can you show me how you get your sight going.”  

Aiden grinned, stretching out his fingers as he made this visual incantation and whispered his own trigger word for the sight. It always felt heavy upon him, like a pixie had got in his head and was trying to tug his eyeballs back into his skull. 

“Reveal.” The word seemed to echo a little in the tiny space of the car, as though it ricocheted from deep inside. It took a moment for all of the extra information to focus back and become recognisable to his mind. Aiden found the best way to describe witch sight to someone who did not have it was like the overlay in a videogame, but a really awful videogame where the information provided was hard to decipher and never came with an effective tutorial for everyone. Most witches and sorcerers tended to describe it as a bunch of lights or flashes, but some heard sounds and in very rare cases what they saw looked solid and truthful as the non-sight world. 

“Hmm. Describe to me what you can see in this car using your sight that you could not pick out before.” 

Her gaze was fixed on her phone as she set up a timer. Aiden used this as a chance to swallow his nerves as his gaze drifted around the car trying to find what she was asking for. Had she prepared this test beforehand? Maybe she was using this as a proper training session, her cruel words only meant to goad him into reaching his true potential where by the end of the week he would have managed to dispel a death curse, kiss a beautiful girl, and earn a commendation by the city just like Leo always managed to. It was a long shot, but he hoped it would become true. 

“Erm I can see that the charm hanging from the wing mirror is active...” 

“Can you tell me what charm type it is?” 

“Err... Some kind of protection thing? An alarm. I can’t quite see how much power has been put into it so it’s kind of hard to tell.” 

He squinted hard but that just made the throbbing in his head feel heavier. 

“Alright now look at me and evaluate. Quickly now before you need to turn it off.”  

Aiden swung his head over it felt so heavy, but he could do this, after all he had wanted to do this to Mr Samson earlier now he had permission he regretted how excited he had been to use his sight. He always forgot how hard it was, only ever remembered how great it was in changing how he viewed the world. Especially people. You had to focus to see the details with them just like everything else, but it made them beautiful, it made them who they were. 

Eve glowed Green to Aiden. He could make out some abstract shapes at her core. 

“So, green...” 

“That doesn’t make much sense to someone who doesn’t see the same as you. Give me details, like how much power you can see.”  

Her words were gentle and guiding, Aiden guessed he must really look rough about now. 

“There is so little flow, almost human levels of magic coming in and out. A tiny spark in the centre but everything so green around that keyhole.” 

“Alright kid. Release when you feel ready.” 

His head burned and he could feel tears on his cheeks as he spoke his word as calmly as he could manage. 

“Release.”  

It was like his eyes were floating as the weight anchoring them down sprung away. Still a slight headache persisted but he smiled as he looked at Eve who was cancelling her timer. He must have been using the sight for at least five minutes which was well above average for someone who had not had much chance of practicing. 

“So how did I do?” 

“Well you did work out my own natural power output but, you can’t perform a silent activation, you only managed three minutes, you struggle to distinguish the amount of power being given out by a charm let alone squinting like hell to work out what type it is. I think you should avoid activating sight to observe unless we are separate from our clients, or I instruct you to do so. You need the practice but its unprofessional to activate so loudly in front of them.” 

Aiden’s face fell then twisted into worry. 

“Your magic is that low?? You can’t have enough magic to channel to even erect a protection circle!” 

“And?” Eve retorted dryly opening the door of the car and waiting outside. Aiden scrambled out after her slamming the door shut a little bit too heavily as he moved as quickly as he could to be close to Eve. To anyone watching he would have looked like an overexcited puppy trying to protect their master. 

“Isn’t that dangerous? Shouldn’t you have a partner working with you in case...”  

“Look kid I’m not an invalid. Humans get around with no magic and you don’t see them needing a Hellhound as a magic guide dog. I am perfectly capable of keeping myself from harm.” 

She pressed the doorbell and the door swung quickly open as a plate came flying through the air aimed directly at the middle of her face.