People can know, but the public never can.
No one knows when the idiom was coined, but they were words that all Arcanics know from the time they're little. Individuals could, eventually know about the full existence of the world that existed within their own, but they could never know as a whole, as a culture, because in the end, peds just weren't ready to handle it. History how shown that. Witch hunts and demonization through stories and media proved that as a whole, as a race and through their cultures, they just weren't ready for it.
Some Arcanics thought that no one that wasn't of one of the races should ever know the truth. They fought tooth and nail to create a veil, a curtain and their own world in the mountains and the hills, hiding in the deserts and the snowy extremes. It never worked. Arcanics wanted more. They sought more. In the end, they found friends and loved ones amongst the peds and while still some raged against this mixing, it became more of a norm with each generation.
Eventually Arcanics were living side by side with peds, they just never knew it. They didn't think twice about why it was that house on the cul de sac always had the most luscious and elegant lawns. They blamed technology on the advances of that new company that was creating prosthetics that melded with a person's own nerve endings. And they marveled and delighted in a stage magician who managed tricks that no one could figure out and who had an entire "society" online devoted to trying to out his tricks.
Peds, pedestrians, they wanted magic in their lives. They wanted something to brighter up their lives. They wanted something to believe in, without actually believing. Over time Arcanics gave them that. People knew but the public didn't, not really. But it meant that there had to be a way to ensure that the balance was maintained.
The Whip was created to keep that balance. The Whip is an Arcanic enforcement unit made up of those that want to live within the ped world but not like others do. Moving in it but not part of it. Some are burned out on the world itself. Others had a hard time with their life among the peds and want to try and make it safe for other from their world. Whatever their reason, their job is to ensure the public doesn't find out the truth. They keep Arcanics from acting out beyond acceptable limits. They stop peds in the know from outing them. They're judge, jury and executioner all in one. Their job isn't easy but someone has to do it.
Zayne is a modern Arcanic. He wants to live amongst the peds. Hell, he wants the Arcanics to not only live but thrive, open and not hiding in shadows. The old ways haven't done anything for them and he keeps that line between people and public but only just barely. A well known magician, he puts on shows all around the world with magic none have ever seen before. He has a fan club, and he has a group that goes to every show in a desperate attempt to debunk him and prove how he does his tricks. When asked how he does it, he says two things. The name of his show. Smokeless and Mirrors. He's not lying. As a djinn he knows quite a bit about smokeless fires, and about magic.
Madoc has spent a lot of years trying to keep the Arcanic world safe. Joining the Whip wasn't entirely a choice. He heralds death. He can't help it when he sees others and knows their time is coming and much faster than they think. Black dogs can't help what they see, but they can help what they do with it. So he watches out for Arcanics, doing all he can that the hunts never happen again, and he makes sure the people in their lives when they pass keep their secrets. Maybe he can't control what he is, but he can use it for the best he can. Even if it means putting up with assholes like Zayne and the new age Arcs that flaunt the rules.
