‘A WITCH’S APPEAL TO AMERICA, BY LACHLAN FREY’
I am giving myself up in the hope it will reveal to every American what your government is doing in your name to children, to families, to people you know and those you care for. This includes scientific experimentation, secret drug trials, improper use of force, invasion of privacy, arbitrary detention.
That’s a lot of legal-sounding stuff. Sort of thing you might hear in courts. But in plain words what they’re really doing – and what we as Americans should be long past ever doing again – is separating out one group of people. Suggesting they shouldn’t be treated the same as the rest. We know where this path leads, and our politicians should be ashamed to have set their foot upon it.
Big claims. You’ll want evidence. So at this moment, I am also releasing to national and global media outlets a cache of documents – let’s call them the Redhaven Files – from within the campaign orchestrated by Sandra Ortiz. They will prove that discussions took place inside government about unethical research intended to harm people with magical ability. Research that in some cases has been conducted in Canada, to enable deniability.
Yet more documents reveal the shocking numbers of children and young people violated by forcible testing under the new Act, their DNA harvested and made available to corporations.
And also included is correspondence sent to Ortiz’s campaign by people boasting of assaulting magical folk, or volunteering for a witch-hunting militia, or describing in sickening detail their fantasies of harming witches. I am not suggesting the Ortiz campaign approves of such actions or ideas. But neither is there any record of her office reporting these dangerous individuals. And the fact they felt their violent hate would get a sympathetic hearing from her campaign shows you who the anti-witchcraft alliance truly creates space for. And it’s not decent, regular Americans.
To all of you, my fellow citizens, I owe an apology. My recent behaviour at the Montreal experimental site may have stoked your anxiety about magicals. I certainly, as my friends have told me, lost my cool spectacularly. But that had nothing to do with being a witch and everything to do with being a loving father.
My innocent daughter was kidnapped in the name of their so-called research. Sandra Ortiz wouldn’t expose her own child to risk. No, Luka Ortiz’s magic was removed by magical professionals. Instead she made my daughter a guinea pig for untested drugs. For what I did that day, I apologise. For why I did it, I make no apology at all. Not a single parent or caring adult among you would have acted differently.
You can probably hear the helicopters overhead, now. And that shouting? It’s members of the Capitol’s security team demanding I give myself up. Hey guys, stay calm, that’s exactly what I’m here to do. Just a few more words.
I know what will happen to me next. I’ll receive the same drug they injected into my child. It’ll strip out the very heart of myself – my magic.
I submit to this so that you, my fellow Americans, may understand the great wrong being done to those who have only ever used their Gift to help others. The wrong being done to many of your friends and neighbours just because they were born a little different. I beg you to raise your voices and tell your representatives, your government, and your President that this is un-American and is not done in your name.
No more Salems!
[Frey lifts his handcuffed wrists above his head to show he won’t shape any spells. The circle of supporters around him breaks open as he turns and walks toward the Capitol. They chant: No more Salems! No more Salems!Filming continues as Frey is swarmed by security, knocked to the ground and tasered. Police begin dispersing the protesters, but the camera ducks and wobbles to capture glimpses of Frey’s unconscious, strapped-down body being stretchered into a black van.]
75
NPR HOURLY BULLETINS
18:00 Eastern, 17:00 Central, 16:00 Mountain, 15:00 Pacific
… in Washington, DC this afternoon, in a livestream now viewed by millions, Lachlan Frey of magical rights group Redhaven – which in past months has claimed responsibility for numerous disruptions at witchcraft registration centres and is now designated as an extremist organisation by authorities – made an impassioned plea for the ending of what he characterised as state persecution of witches. Frey also released a cache of documents, whose authenticity is presently being scrutinised by journalists here at NPR as well as other leading news outlets, alleging government wrongdoing in its treatment of magical persons. His rallying cry – ‘No More Salems!’ – has gone viral across multiple social media outlets, shared by a number of entertainment and sporting personalities.
A Government spokesperson confirmed that Lachlan Frey has been taken into custody. The Department of Homeland Security states: ‘A thorough investigation will be made and charges laid, but for the safety of all involved in his detention and given the violent disorder to which he hasalready confessed, Mr Frey will this evening receive the new treatment of magical nullification.’
20:00 Eastern, 19:00 Central, 18:00 Mountain, 17:00 Pacific
And just in, we have confirmation that Frey’s magical nullification has now been carried out. An updated statement from the Department says, ‘At 19:20 Lachlan Frey was administered the nullifying dosage, and a subsequent test using the nationwide protocol adopted under the Witchcraft Registration Act has confirmed no trace of magic remains in his system.’
76
SARAH
I didn’t think he’d come, but here he is. Well-dressed as ever in a crisp navy suit and white shirt, with eye-catching designer glasses. I recall all the times I glimpsed him on TV, suave and persuasive, and felt glad we witches had such a savvy representative. One able to speak the language of the elite back at them, to protect our interests.
I remember the nights round the smoky fire at Darkening Pine Campground when Harper and I were lying low, when Queenie got hold of the wind-up transistor so I could listen to bulletins about the Congressional Witchcraft Hearings. Back then, Charles Okoye seemed a perfect spokesman for the magical community. So how did he come to be sitting down with Sandra Ortiz? Stripping Luka’s magic without his consent?
He holds his chin high as he stands beneath the stained-glass dome of the Moot’s Council Chamber, several dozen members in attendance. It took Naomi and the admin team all day yesterday to call as many of them as possible, and book flights and taxis. I was glad of the bustle, and Harper too, because it stopped us thinking about Lachlan every minute of the day. His crazy surrender. What he might be suffering in detention.
Redhaven has done its part. Lachlan is splashed across thepapers and news sites, viral on social media. The contents of the Redhaven Files are trickling out as the verification process gets underway, and America’s treatment of its witches is making global headlines. Okoye is here because now it’s the Moot’s turn. We need to keep that momentum going. Ensure the American people don’t only hear our cry ofNo More Salems!but take it up. Join their millions of voices to ours.
Fretfully, I rub my palms over the armrests of the President’s Seat, carved into the shape of cats’ paws. I miss the reassuring twine of Aira around my ankles – my familiar will be fending for herself in Sanctuary’s alleyways. Harper isn’t here in the chamber. She doesn’t have a right to be, and besides, one of us needs to guard our Starcross. Naomi is the only truly familiar face in this echoing chamber.
This is my job. To persuade Okoye to denounce Ortiz and go along with my plans.
I can’t do it from this stupid throne. Witches don’t do hierarchy. That’s why the historic ban on all-magical covens is so cruel, because it locks us into a position of superiority, forced to draw energies from mundanes weaker than us. I’d laughed when Lachlan told me, back in our youth, he believed that ruling was all part of instilling fear and uncertainty about witches.It forces us to be takers – to predate our Giftless friends, Lachlan said, while I shook my head, disbelieving. How naïve I was. Sliding my butt off the padded leather of the President’s Seat, I join Okoye down on the floor. We’re sat side by side at the Speaker’s table, a microphone in front of each of us so the council members can hear.
‘You didn’t stay with Sandra Ortiz at the Montreal clinic,’ I say. ‘Though you stripped Luka Ortiz’s magic from him. Can you tell us why you made that decision in each case?’
