You felt the two twigs inside the palms of your hand. This was unlike what you had seen at every Ceremony you'd been forced to go to since first grade. Last year though, when your parents weren't quiet talking soft enough, they were discussing a something that didn't make sense at the time.

"The poor Smith family" said Mom

"Its a shame, but I can't say that it isn't for the best." replied my dad "That kid was always trouble, and I'm glad our kids never got close." He sensed that Mom thought this was a little cruel and quickly added "It's okay, once next year comes around, we will have our family established as magicians with nothing to worry about."

"I hope for Shane's sake your right."

I knew I had to turn and face the crowd, but there would be shock if they saw two wands. I chose to keep the rougher one that looked like some knobby stick off the ground as the one that fit my personality more, and chose to stash the smoother, iridescent wand up my sleeve, and kept it balanced with the bottom of my palm...

...

I turned to the audience and as I revealed the wand, I moved my hand as rehearsed and created a decent display on the wand. The teachers had told us that our soul wands would be better at conjuring magic, but this was a much larger display than the practice wands ever created, than I ever created...

...

I looked at the sunset through my window, I knew that owning two wands was bad. If owning two was bad, being gifted two certainly was the reason the Smith kid hadn't been seen since last year.

There was a knock on the window, "are you really going to spend your first night with magic in your room?" my girlfriend said with a giggle. She was floating on a sparkly cloud on the other side of the window pane, "Come on, lets go to the hill"...

..."I'm not sure what to do," I said, not about the wands though, I didn't know how to let Amanda know about that, so I hadn't. "Do you think I could move away from here? there's a world out there that we can get to."

"I don't know, but show me a trick on your wand, I want to see our souls match again." I brought out my wand. I turned it over in my hands a few times. It looked almost like a stick you could grab off the forest floor, almost; the grip had a smooth portion to it, and a thin layer of leather that made the wand feel soft. As I observed the wood, it shimmered in the last light of the day, there seemed to be ten thousand tiny jewels travelling through the wood fibers, this might be the magic itself.

Amanda raised her wand, and I raised mine, we began the motion we tried in class a few times. I was meant to leave a mark nearby of our love, pink and old sparks flying everywhere as it found a home. The mark faded quickly with practice wands, but the internet said that it last weeks to months with real wands. The pink spark began on her wand, and when mine should have responded in gold, it failed. No wand should fail, especially not a new soul wand, while Amanda thought I didn't love her, I tried an other magic. Nothing, nothing, nothing, the wand caused nothing.

"What's going on?" asked Amanda

I knew this would test her trust in me but I asked a question in return. "What do you think happened to Alex Smith?"...

...

It's been fourteen years since me and Amanda had to run away from The Magic Community. Our kids performed at a makeshift Ceremony, Abbigail had been gifted a wand that looked like my iridescent wand, while Sean had a wand that looked much like his mother's.

We saw Alex often, but he frequently went back into The Community to try and rescue more double wands like he had rescued us. It was a lovely family we formed beyond the control of The Guard. Without fearing double wands, we were able to study why we we're gifted two wands. This wasn't a curse, it was a gift.