It didn’t take long to get everyone moving. The agents hopped into the vans and Rose was given a seat in the middle one. She unfortunately had to dispel her saw-staff since there was no way to safely store it. But she could resummon it at a moment's notice. Since it didn’t take any effort to maintain she decided to keep her transformation on. She would feel a little out of place in work clothes next to all the agents in tactical gear. Somniphobia quickly explained to her that DATA had facilities in a lot of cities and they would be heading to one.

  After that though, the contractor had to leave. She had been present for the anomaly as a liaison between DATA and the Keepers Alliance so she was expected to give a report and work with the agent in charge of the operation. Not to mention all the scrying magic she had set up and needed to take down again. With her ability to teleport she would still get to the base first.

  Rose would have liked to talk during the ride but she simply bid Somniphobia farewell and settled in. While she didn’t really know them she wasn’t worried about being left with the agents at this point. The agents on the other hand seemed a little tense with her there. They were too polite to say anything but people kept glancing at her when they thought she wasn’t looking. In fact they weren’t saying anything at all and seemed happy to stay silent the entire time. With no window to look out of, Rose did her best not to stare at the agent sitting across from her and focused on herself.

  The steady flow of magic through her had faded into the background but she could sense it if she focused. It moved on its own, strengthening her, but it wasn’t quite as subconscious as her heartbeat. With a little focus it could be controlled to increase or lessen the effect. But not by very much. The way her strength was boosted when she was moving was much more noticeable.

  Even though she thought her senses had improved it was hard to tell. Her reaction time in battle had been a lot better but her vision didn’t seem much different. She could definitely see better in the dark. There was only one small lamp in the back of the van and yet she could pick out everything in the shadows just fine. It hadn’t stood out to her before since even at night and in the anomaly the city was well lit.

  Of course the ability to sense magic outside herself was entirely new. It was impossible to describe having a completely new sense but Rose was adjusting to it. Teleporting seemed to have helped her in that regard. Being briefly cut off from her surroundings partway through helped her filter the sensations. There wasn’t much to sense since Earth was a low mana world.

  A little bit of background energy was barely perceivable. It was almost drowned out by the mana Rose gave off. There were also the connections she could sense. Those tethers that had been cut to move them from one place to another. Since they weren’t actual lines between one object and another they didn’t quite go in a direction like she had thought before. It was just a sense that two things were tied together. Every person in the van was linked to the point in space they were currently occupying. Rose herself was also tied to her weapon, even though it wasn’t manifested at the moment.

  It was one more thing on a list of topics she wanted to ask Somniphobia about. But there would be plenty of time for that once she was getting lessons on magic. First they needed to figure out her link to anomalies and what Rose’s future would look like. While the agents getting trapped inside had surprised them, they seemed to treat the rest of the anomaly as business as usual. If things like that were happening all the time then Rose wanted to be putting a stop to them.

  Somniphobia had also mentioned that magical girls gathered even before they got their powers. Rose had a few friends but the only one she was truly close to was Lisette. If she could do magic as well then Rose would love to have someone she could rely on helping her. There was no doubt she would be interested either. While Rose hadn’t had reasons to fight before, Lisette never seemed to run out of stories of people she’d beaten up when she was younger. There was seemingly always someone causing trouble that she wanted to stop.

  With all those concerns and more, Rose spent the rest of the ride deep in thought. Until about half an hour later they reached the facility.

  Rose knew they had arrived when she felt a wave of magic wash over them. She couldn’t tell what it did but when the van suddenly went down a steep incline she guessed they were entering an underground car park. The magic was probably some sort of security barrier. Her suspicions were confirmed when the agents started shuffling about and getting ready to go.

  The van came to a stop and someone opened the back door from the outside. A man in plain grey work clothes froze for a moment when he saw Rose. Unlike the agents he wasn’t wearing any tactical gear and his face wasn’t covered. With all the pockets on his clothes he looked like a mechanic or construction worker. He glanced at the agents and gave them a confused look before stepping aside and waving them out.

  The ones sitting across from her filed out first and then Rose followed. The car park they were in looked completely normal. Grey concrete and white markings for parking spots. It was fairly large but not the biggest Rose had ever seen. A number of other vans were parked around the place as well as a few military looking trucks.

  While Rose hadn’t really expected anything she was still a little bit disappointed. Nothing here looked particularly magical or futuristic. It didn’t really give off the feeling of a secret base. But then it was a government organisation. And the boring decor and rows of identical cars definitely fit that.

  A few people in uniforms approached and Agent Angler gave them a solute before they started talking. One split off from the group and approached Rose instead. He introduced himself and asked her to follow him. Somniphobia was already in the facility and waiting for her.

  Rose waved goodbye to Angler and the other agents and followed along. They walked to one end of the car park and entered an elevator. Here things started to look a little more secret base like. The agent scanned a key card to enter and instead of pushing a button just spoke into an intercom. There were no controls inside the elevator and no indication which floor they were currently on.

  When the doors opened again Rose found the sight far more impressive. They stepped out into a corridor running along a large atrium. The ceiling was a few floors higher up and covered in a huge mural. The lines and symbols looked like a magic circle but Rose couldn’t sense anything from it. It was dark grey against the lighter grey of the concrete. The entire building seemed to be made of concrete with very little colour.

  The corridor they were in only went three quarters of the way around the open space. To her right a stretch of the wall had no corridors cutting through it and was instead covered by a waterfall. The wall sloped inwards so the water flowed down it instead of falling straight down. Most of the ground floor was taken up by a large pool with a few fountains. Bridges spanned across it, connecting the corridors leading in and out of the atrium. Though Rose could see the corridor on the ground went all around the pool, including behind the waterfall.

  Despite the blank concrete and lack of decoration Rose still liked how the space looked. It was so big that it didn’t really matter if it wasn’t decorated. She noticed that only the top two floors seemed to have windows, though she couldn’t see much outside. They must have parked pretty deep to still be underground after taking an elevator. Besides the building itself she also took a look at the people. There were surprisingly few around for the sheer amount of corridors going in and out of the atrium. Some were wearing military uniforms but most were just in regular office clothes.

  The one thing that stood out the most was the blue shape of Somniphobia swooping along the corridor to meet them. It occurred to Rose that between it being night and the lights in the archive being warped this was the first time she was seeing Somniphobia in bright light. While the bat herself glowed it was pretty faint even in dim lighting. In the bright light of what was, despite what they dealt with, basically an office building, she looked a little less mystical.

  “Hi, Somni. Any problems at the archive?” Rose said.

  “Not at all. The building has fully returned to normal and all personnel have withdrawn. My colleagues will be studying the information. Did you have a pleasant drive?” Somniphobia asked. She didn’t seem to care about the nickname.

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  “Yeah it was fine. The agents seemed a little tense around me but they weren’t rude about it. This place is pretty cool. I don’t know about anywhere like this in the city. I kind of figured a secret government agency would just use regular government buildings and not tell anyone what they’re actually doing.”

  “Some do. Most however require the construction of specialised sites. The Keeper Alliance offered spells to help build places like this but we were turned down. Instead the facilities were constructed without magic. Some spellwork was added later at our recommendation and even though we supplied the formulas it was mages native to earth that implemented them.”

  “It’s very pretty. Feels like a shame more people can’t see it. People sometimes call buildings like this or the archive ugly for being all bricks or all concrete but I think there’s something special about practical buildings. How they try to look nice even though they were just built to get the job done.”

  While they were talking Somniphobia motioned for the agent to continue. He turned towards the corridor away from the waterfall and led the way.

  “So this place is where the directors are? I’m kind of surprised that the headquarters for something like this aren’t in the capital,” Rose said.

  “Oh they are. At least the closest thing to a headquarters there is. The directors are somewhat independent of each other. Each section of DATA provides something to the organisation as a whole, while also handling their own tasks. The facility here deals with the cause for what you saw earlier tonight.

  “Director Sinclair is in charge here. However I do not expect you will have to deal with him much. We will simply make a report before he directs us to the agents better suited to working with a magical girl. The director handles the more mundane side of things. He is not particularly equipped for something like this,” Somniphobia said.

  “What do you mean? Does he only work with abnormal magic then?”

  “This part of the organisation handles administrative tasks and interaction with other agencies for the organisation as a whole. They are, I suppose, the most mundane department. The agents here can stand up to an anomaly they have been extensively briefed on but struggle against things that are new or unexpected. Director Sinclair is mostly concerned with payroll and performance reviews. His work has the least to do with magic or anomalies. He is also eighty years old and spent his early life in a world where magic, normal or abnormal, did not exist.”

  That was always strange for Rose to think about. She was in her twenties and the knowledge of other worlds had always been part of her life. But first contact had only been a bit more than fifty years ago. There were plenty of people alive who had spent decades living with no idea that there was anyone else out there. While she couldn’t imagine how big of a shock that must have been she could understand that those people probably understood magic differently from everyone born after. Especially since it was still so scarce.

  “Oh,” Rose muttered. “So we’ll just get passed along to the people actually handling things? That doesn’t seem great for a director.”

  “Most of a leader's job is to delegate. Director Sinclair is competent enough to realise what he is not suited to. And figuring out what to do with a magical girl is not it. That is my job.”

  Rose could understand that. Even though she liked her manager she wouldn’t have let him anywhere near a record form. Thinking about her coworkers, she was glad the anomaly happened so late in the day. Most people had already left so she didn’t need to worry if anyone she knew had gotten hurt.

  Partway around the atrium they left through a corridor directly across from the large waterfall. Where the large hall had felt grand, a regular halfway in plain grey felt very bland. The floor was carpeted in a boring blueish grey and there were no markings on the walls. Rose was already concerned that if all the corridors were like this she would get lost on her own.

  Their escort seemed to have no trouble with that. He led them along identical hallways past unlabelled doors until they reached a different section. The walls were still plain concrete but the doors were numbered. And there were signs at intersections. Rose read a few labelled ‘Requisitions’, ‘Incursion Evacuation Point C’ and ‘Human Resources’.

  Eventually they reached a plain metal door like every other one they had passed. This one wasn’t numbered but a plaque on the door read ‘Director Sinclair’. The agent gave Rose and Somniphobia a salute before continuing down the corridor. Rose waved goodbye to him before following Somniphobia, who stepped into the office without knocking.

  The inside of the office looked far more friendly than the outside. The walls were still bare concrete but two of them were covered by huge dark wood. The third wall was decorated with various framed papers and some paintings of seasides and ports. Despite being the director's office the room wasn’t particularly large and most of it was taken up by a big wooden desk. It surprised Rose and she wondered if it was only the corridors that were bare. The rooms people actually worked in were probably nicer.

  Sitting behind the desk was a very regal looking man. He was obviously old, with wrinkled skin and white hair, but he didn’t look the eighty years Somniphobia had claimed. Unlike the agents who all stood very stiffly, Director Sinclair looked relaxed. He wore glasses that must have been very old. They had thick lenses instead of the modern thinner ones. A few of the things around the room looked like he’d owned them for a long time. As Rose closed the door behind her he put down the papers he had been holding and folded his hands.

  “Hello Director!” Somniphobia said. “I hope you are doing well!”

  “Yes, thank you Liaison Somniphobia. Miss Rose, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he nodded at Rose. “I’ve been receiving reports on the incident. I don’t like this new behaviour from the subject. If it’s changing the way it works we could be looking at far higher casualties until we wrangle it back under control. But before that, I hope you’re here to explain why you took a civilian on a tour of an active incident and what exactly a magical girl is?”

  “Rose was far safer than any other human there but your concern is much appreciated! A magical girl is a rare form of naturally magical being. Unlike most, who gain a number of magics they are immediately proficient in, magical girls have very few innate talents. Instead they are uniquely capable of growth and adaptation. A magical girl can gain innate talent in almost any form of magic given enough exposure.

  “There are very few of them as their magic must be awakened externally. Contractors like myself are the only race capable of doing so without large rituals. Fascinating is it not?! There does not appear to be any link between us and yet our powers interact in such a manner… anyway. Rose has expressed interest in learning magic and it is my responsibility to teach her. We do not have the same joining procedures as you do so you may as well consider her a member of the keeper alliance.”

  The director turned to look at Rose.

  “So you intend to work with the keepers now?” he said. “There are provisions for something like that. But you must understand that if they start taking you off world we will have to place restrictions on your movements. We can’t have a foreign agent running around freely with magic. If you’re looking for tutoring you could take a job with us. Earth has a growing need for capable mages. Some of the directors are even learning it. You would be well taken care of.”

  “Oh, um thank you for the offer. But I think I’d like to work with Somniphobia. She did introduce me to magic and I think I’ll be able to grow more with her. But I do want to do something about the anomalies so I’d like to work with you even if I’m not working for you,” Rose replied.

  “Yes, the report mentioned as much. A junior liaison? Not technically a position but they’re making things up as they go half the time anyway. Normally I would have complaints about one of our citizens being plucked away like this but the alliance has certain international agreements that go over the heads of the directorate. Just know that there are options if you change your mind.”

  Rose nodded at him and smiled. While he wasn’t anything like she had expected, the director seemed to be a good man. While he was clearly trying to recruit her it did seem to be because he believed it for the best and not because he didn’t want to let any power go.

  “I will, thank you. I’ll do my best to help alongside Somniphobia.”

  “And not just Rose!” Somniphobia chimed in. “Magical girls work best in teams so I will be transferring a few individuals from other worlds in need of a team here. And talking to Rose’s friends to see if any of them have the potential.”

  Director Sinclair frowned at Somniphobia while she did the best rendition of a smile her snout would allow. After a moment he just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses.

  “Fine. I can’t actually stop you as long as you file your reports. But I still disapprove. If you’re putting a whole team together I want you to work with Commander Owlsend from now on. I’m sure he can handle it. How long will it take to get them set up?”

  “Not long at all. Magical girls are combat ready immediately by nature.”

  “Good. Then I can send you out immediately. While you were occupied there was another incident over in The City and they need a liaison. I was going to ask for someone else but since you’ll be working with Owlsend anyway I’ll ask you.”

  “Another incident? Is anyone hurt? Do we need to go back out?” Rose asked.

  Sinclair adjusted his glasses again and sat up straighter. While he had had a more relaxed air compared to the agents before now he looked more serious than any of them.

  “Not in this city. In the one we’re trying to keep out”