Kazan studied the door in front of him. It was a standard, digital keypad lock, a type he’d seen numerous times before. Behind him, three other men stood by, shifting their weight anxiously. Inwardly, Kazan smiled to himself while outwardly he tinkered with the fake electronic gear he’d brought along.

“Just another few seconds,” he told the other three.

In truth he was just pulling some life away from each of them in order to use his magic and open the lock that way. He could do it in an instant if he wanted but drawing life out of someone that quickly didn’t go unnoticed. Of course, they wouldn’t know what was happening to them, only that they didn’t feel well.

A moment passed and Kazan opened the lock, draining the life he’d taken from the three and converting it into power. At the same time he deactivated the alarm system that was connected to the door.

“Get started,” the leader of their crew, Corban, said.

He was a tall man, bald, and prone to sunburns since he hated wearing shirts while outside. Right now they were all in black, though, dressed for the job at hand.

Once inside the museum, the other three began spreading out, going to the works they’d been hired to steal. Kazan moved over to one of the alarm control boxes and began ‘working’ on it. All of his gear was homemade and utterly useless. It looked the part, though, with wires and circuit boards and little clips he could connect to other wires. No one ever questioned him since he always came through for his clients.

Kazan wasn’t part of any one crew. Instead, he contracted out and worked for whoever needed his services. Sure, it exposed him to greater risk of being caught since the more people you knew, the more likely it was someone else would get caught and cut a deal to name names in exchange for a lighter sentence, but Kazan could get out of those situations if needed. Magic solved so many problems.

“Security system’s off,” Kazan said after a moment and the other three began removing the works of art they were here for.

This particular museum had only been open for a few weeks and they were about to lose their most valuable pieces of their collection. A pity in some ways, but Kazan wasn’t one for art so he didn’t really care one way or the other. He was just here for the money.

Something prickled at the back of his neck and he paused just as he was about to begin walking through the museum with the others. Something was wrong. He’d felt that prickle a few other times in his life and it always meant the same thing. Someone else with magic was nearby.

“Hold on,” he whispered to the other three and made them all invisible to anyone besides themselves.

“What is it?” Corban asked.

None of the others knew about Kazan’s magic and he preferred to keep it that way.

“I thought I heard something. Maybe a guard.”

The three set down their bags of stolen goods and pulled out small batons, similar to what police would carry. They were effective at subduing most people without being loud or lethal.

Someone tried to turn the alarms back on but Kazan was ready for that and instantly blocked them. They were trying to use magic to bypass him but instead they ran into Kazan and he had three healthy people to siphon life off of to empower himself. The other person, whoever they were, didn’t have such a reserve to draw from and quickly stopped trying to reactivate the alarms. Instead, Kazan felt them drawing nearer.

“I don’t hear anything,” one of the thieves said but Corban waved for him to be silent.

Kazan wasn’t sure if his invisibility trick would work on someone who could also use magic, but he hoped it would be enough. It was a moment before he realized that the other person might also be making themselves invisible. So, rather than relying on his eyes, he quested out with his magic, searching for changes in the air, shadows that weren’t where they were supposed to be, anything that might tell him if someone else was here.

Sure enough, he found a place where the air was pulsing in a rhythm very much like a person breathing. Kazan focused a bit harder and pierced the other person’s invisibility. The security guard stood there, shining his flashlight around, noticing the missing pieces of art and using his radio to report the theft.

“I see at least six missing pieces,” he was saying, “no sign of the intruder or intruders. Alarms have been bypassed.”

Kazan intercepted the radio signal and altered it to instead say that everything was fine. The guard seemed to sense Kazan interfering and breathed in, magic sweeping out of him, washing away Kazan’s invisibility before he could stop it. They locked eyes and Kazan let his companions see the guard as well.

They swore at the sudden appearance of the guard but sprang into action, swinging their batons in an effort to down the guard as fast as possible.

Predictably, the guard tried to drain away their life force but Kazan had them all well within his protection and kept the guard from downing them all right away. The first baton cracked agains the guard’s head and he didn’t even stagger. Instead, he punched Corban in the face, knocking him out, followed by a second and then a third punch that downed each of the other two men in quick succession. Fighting with magic was simply too powerful for regular people to withstand. Now that his team was unconscious, the real fighting could begin.

“You’ve been blessed and this is how you use your gifts?” the guard asked as they began to circle one another.

“I’m just doing what I can with what I’ve been given,” Kazan replied.

They were both probing at one another, seeing how powerful the other one was and whether there was any obvious weakness they could exploit. Kazan, who’d fought a few times like this, left his right side exposed on purpose in order to try and bait an attack there so he could counter it. It was called Playing the Fool, because you either had to be a fool to fight this way, or you had to be a fool to fight someone doing it.

The guard took the bait and lashed out, trying to disrupt Kazan’s magic and strike at his right side. Kazan blurred forward, dodging past the attack, and grabbed the guard by the throat. He lifted him up off his feet and slammed him down onto the marble floor, cracking the tile. The guard gasped, stunned, and in that moment of weakness, Kazan drew the man’s life out of him. Not enough to kill him but enough to render him unconscious.

A few modified memories to keep him from identifying anyone later, and Kazan, now flush with power, modified his companions memories slightly to remove the memory of being caught. He stood them all up and woke them at the same time. Without missing a beat, they resumed their work of gathering up the last of the items they were here for and left.

“Another job well done,” Corban said as they drove away.

None of them would notice the bruises on their faces for at least a few days. By then, it wouldn’t matter to Kazan since he’d be paid and on to the next job. He did make a note for himself to keep an eye on that security guard, though. He tried to keep tabs on other magic users near him since they were the only ones who might pose a threat to him. Still, he didn’t kill when he fought them, even though he could have, and he hoped that they would be honorable enough to leave it at that.