The main character in my short story Spirit Wolf is a Mage. I don’t know why she’s a Mage as opposed to a witch or some other kind of magic user. I’m still working out what a Mage actually is.

Magic User
The clearest notion I had was that Melissa is some kind of magic user. She’s not a witch if you use the definition of witch as a magic user who approaches magic from a religious point of view. My Mages are more like physicists they work by manipulating the physical world on the molecular level. They play with energy and matter as though they were one and the same.

Secret Society
The other thing I know about Mages is that they maintain a separate society that exists within the ordinary human world. They have internet connections and ipods, but they also use magic as a tool for everyday living. They don’t have a democratic “government” the most powerful have formed a loose confederation that keeps the rest in line. There main task is to keep the existence of Mages secret. The penalty for “piercing the veil,” as they call it, is pretty drastic.

That is the kernel of what I know about the Mages. I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to have astonishing abilities, yet be forced to keep them a secret? I'd love to hear from people in the comments who are part of a "secret" segment of society.  How do you keep the secret?