When Syd had imagined magic as a kid, it had been filled with wizards, friendships and sparkles. She had been particularly disappointed when she grew up and realised only one of those three things existed. She would have loved to say that it had been friendship, but all her life accomplishments had landed her smack dab in the middle of… wizards.
She had thought it was a regular office job at first. The interview had been normal enough, except for a few murmured Latin chants by the interviewer that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Syd hadn’t even blinked when the interviewer had asked her what she would do if a dragon walked through the door. At the time, it had seemed like an innocent enough question – modern interviews tended to throw in some fun, surreal questions aimed at understanding a potential candidate’s brainstorming process.
Two years and an existential crisis later, she had gotten used to her coworkers all wearing the same pointy hat and poking jokes at her inability to perform magic. Random miscast spells didn’t even bother her anymore. If any industry involved morally dubious wizards, it made sense that it was the financial sector.
“Are you on track for the bath modifications, Sydney?” Her boss asked as she walked alongside him, avoiding any spilled fluids that were leaking out of the cauldron room they traversed through. Syd nodded her head.
“All set for the selkies visiting next week,” she confirmed. It briefly passed her mind the absurdity of her situation. She hadn’t imagined she would ever need to book bathtub modifications for seniors or even the CEO, let alone for a standard conference room. Now, she was brainstorming new tiling and drainage ideas whilst cleaning the handrails free from selkie slime every Friday.
Selkies were much easier to persuade into deals when they were happy in the water. This fact had somehow filtered through her brain to sit amongst commonplace facts like how to cook an egg or cross the street safely. Her boss nodded approvingly.
“You’ve been with us for a while now,” he began, stroking his long white beard. There was a wicked look in his eyes that Syd knew only meant trouble. “I think it’s about time you got a promotion.”
Fear gripped her whole body. This was not going to end well.