Magic Born (11 page)

W
hen I finished my shower
, fresh food had appeared on the table. The fear in my stomach had turned to excitement, and I ate just enough to make sure hunger wouldn’t distract me from learning. Downstairs, Casper waited for me in the library, his head buried in a book at his desk. As I entered, he marked his place with a ribbon and looked up.

“Ah, much better. I take it you’re refreshed?”

“Yeah, there was a new plate of food waiting for me. How does that work?”

“Let’s see if you can figure it out. Think: how have things gotten from one place to another here?”

The only things I’d seen move from place to place at all were people, but that was through teleportation rings. There wasn’t a teleportation ring in my room. I’d assumed the omission was for privacy. The table, however, did have a circle etched into it with markings on the outside edge. I had assumed they were decorative.

“The tabletop is a teleportation ring?”

“Very good. The markings along the outside of the circles place specific restrictions on them. For instance, the one in your table is restricted to delivering food and other items. You don’t have to worry about a person teleporting in.”

The thought of someone appearing standing on the table out of thin air was both terrifying and hilarious. Knowing that a person couldn't use the ring was nice, but it still seemed like a bad idea to have one inside a bedroom.“So anyone can send anything into my room?”

“No. Teleportation rings can only be used to travel to a ring that the mage has been to before unless they are traveling with a mage who has already been to the destination. Only someone who has already been to your room can send items to the ring in your table.”

That was a little comforting. One other thing had bothered me as I showered and thought over the events of the morning. “How come my cell phone battery isn’t dead? I usually have to charge it once a day, and I imagine I’m in roaming territory right now.”

“The table by your bed charges it.”

“I’ll have to learn how to enchant other tables to do that.” The thought of modern technology interacting with foreign magic was strange.

“I’m afraid that’s not magic, just some old Tesla technology that hasn’t made its way into the mainstream yet. There probably is a way to charge a cell phone by magic, but necessity is the mother of invention, and I’ve had no need to figure out how it’s done.”

“Oh.” I felt stupid for assuming it was magic. “Why don’t you sell tables like that?”

“I have no use for more money. Don’t feel bad for not being able to tell the difference. There is a belief rising that advanced technology is barely discernible from magic. Of course, the people speculating have never seen actual magic like what you’re going to learn today. Let’s get started by having you choose a book.”

I couldn’t believe he was letting me touch them. Every spine in the room looked ancient, and I expected an old librarian to jump out at any moment warning me of the destructive nature of the oils on my fingertips. All the titles were in a language I couldn’t understand. I settled on a book with blue leather binding that looked small enough to be easily handled. I pulled it off the shelf and took it to Casper.

“What are you bringing it to me for? Open it.”

I settled into the chair closest to his desk and opened the book. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t read any of the pages there either.

“Now what?”

“Read it.”

The letters on the page began to move, and I jumped in surprise. The letters snapped back into their original order.

“What was that?”

“The book was doing as you commanded it. As I told you to read it, and before you could think, you began to read. The letters moved to reassemble themselves in an order which you would understand. But then you lost focus and they returned to their original place.”

“So you’re saying I can read anything I want in any language and it’ll translate itself into English?”

“Books from Elustria, yes, unless they’ve been enchanted not to. Most of the books in here should translate for you. The only restrictions placed on them is that they will not translate for non-mages, so you should be fine. If you come across one that won’t translate, just bring it to me, and I can see what the restriction is. Go ahead and give it a try.”

I wanted to replicate what had happened, so I simply thought about reading the book in my lap. As before, the letters moved and arranged themselves in place.

“It says here that the mages of Earth worked on potion making. I didn’t think there were officially any mages of Earth.”

“As Mikael said last night, there have been different periods of time in which mages have traveled to Earth more freely and openly than we do now. The people who humans on Earth have deemed witches are actually mages or innocent victims of religious superstition.”

There was quite a difference between those two things. I had a feeling that anyone who had been burned at the stake or hung was most definitely the latter. From what I’d seen of mages, I couldn’t imagine one being killed by humans.

“Are there other magical beings on Earth besides mages and shifters?”

“Most magical beings keep themselves hidden. It’s entirely possible there are magical races here that we’re unaware of. That’s partly why we’re so interested in studying Earth. We do know that vampires exist, though they did not originate in Elustria and, as far as we can tell, are unaware of our presence.”

Having vampires confirmed to be real and not legend was not comforting. That was one paranormal being I would’ve been happy to keep as fiction.

“How come I didn’t have to say a spell to get the words to rearrange?”

“Verbalizing your intent is not always necessary. Having the letters translate themselves is relatively easy, made more so by the fact that these books are all from Elustria and were made by mages. They respond more readily to your commands and intent. Spells are used to help focus exactly what it is you want the magic to do. The more difficult the task, the more likely you’ll need to verbalize it. There are some great mages who never have to say a word to perform any type of magic.”

“So I can make anything do whatever I want just by watching it? Except get this necklace off, of course.” That didn’t sound right.

“Hardly. It’s not quite that simple. The study of magic is really learning what it takes to get the magic to interact with the world around us in a way that produces the results we want. That sounds complicated, I know, and it is, but we start simple with common spells and potions, charms and enchantments. Many mages never go any further than that. They’re content with living their lives in other pursuits. But some mages choose to devote their life to learning the secrets of magic.”

I wanted to travel to Elustria to see how this all worked in real life. What were the day-to-day activities of mages? How did they interact and relate with the world? All that could come at a later date. For now, I need to concentrate on learning as much as I could.

“So how am I going to learn all of this?”

“First, this library is open for your use. You can read anything you find here. Learning magic beyond the basics is, I’m afraid, a tedious process but one that can be quite exciting and satisfying should you have the passion for it.” Casper stood and raised his hand. The book on his desk followed the motion and he gracefully commanded it back to its spot on the shelf.

“I want to learn how to do that.”

“Close your book and think the word ‘levitate.’”

I did as he said and the book floated a few inches in the air above my hands. An excited squee escaped my lips, and the book shot up toward the ceiling, startling me, and then crashed to the ground.

“You need to learn how to control your emotions; it affects the magic. Your excitement is what caused the book to shoot in the air, and then your shock broke the connection with it, and it fell to the floor. This is why we practice.” Casper stretched out his hand and the book seamlessly followed his commands until it was back in its place. “Let’s go to the training floor, and you can meet the other two recruits.”

The idea of attempting to perform magic in front of others filled me with dread. “Are you sure I won’t be a distraction? I don’t want to slow down their learning.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. They’ll be excited to meet you. They’re beginners, just like you. I doubt you’ll be spending much time with them. Sadie and Mikael have both expressed interest in working with you one-on-one. They’re fascinated with you, and you’d be wise to learn from them.”

That sounded much more agreeable. Sadie and Mikael intimidated me, but at least there wouldn’t be more witnesses to my failure.

Casper had shown me the training floor on the tour. The room with the teleportation ring was a large open space that gave plenty of room to practice. In the far corner, Analise was instructing two recruits on how to shoot fire. One of the recruits was a fair-skinned blonde woman with freckles who was probably in her twenties, and the other was a dark-skinned boy with black hair who didn’t look as if he was out of high school yet.

“Julie, Preston, take a break and come say hi to our new arrival,” Casper shouted.

The small fire in front of Preston disappeared as he walked over, Julie following.

“Julie, do you intend to burn down the building? Mages are always responsible for the magic they produce,” Analise said. Her entire demeanor and attitude conveyed fierceness. Even her white-blonde pixie cut was all sharp points and edges.

Julie went back to her fire, and with a wave of her wand, it disappeared. Once she rejoined us, Casper introduced me.

“This is Kat. She’s new and may be joining you on some of your training exercises.”

“Hi.” I waved at them, not quite sure what to do or say.

“It’s good to meet you. I’m Julie, and this is Preston. So did you just find out that you’re a mage?” Julie spoke softly, as if she would normally be shy, but the excitement of the situation overrode her natural tendencies.

“Yeah, I had no idea.”

“Neither did we. To think, if I didn’t let my roommate talk me into gaming, I would’ve never found out.”

“How old are the two of you?” I asked.

“I’m twenty-six,” Julie said. “I was living in New York City before now, trying to make it in the fashion world. Luckily, magic is a lot easier.”

“I’m seventeen and from Liverpool,” Preston said in a gorgeously accented voice.

“Wow, so your parents were fine with you coming here?”

Before Preston could answer, Casper did. “We try not to invite too many minors, but Preston hit our radar and was close enough to leaving home that we decided to approach him. His family was given a memory alteration potion.”

“What do you do if you approach someone and they don’t want to come?”

“The same: they get a memory alteration potion. We’re pretty good at convincing people, though. A quick search of Preston’s screen name showed that he was somewhat of a serial gamer. We wanted to catch him before he moved on to his next game.”

“So, do you want me teaching her now too?” Analise asked in a way that made her preference clear.

“Not right now. I don’t know how successful training them together would be since she doesn’t use a wand.”

“You don’t have a wand? I thought all mages needed one,” Preston said.

“She has a talisman. It works the same as a wand.” Casper answered for me.

“Oh, like you do,” Julie said. “Is it that necklace?”

I clutched the amber stone in my palm, as if to assure myself it was still there. “Yeah, this is it.”

Casper’s illuminator orb floated in front of him, and Sadie's face appeared.

“Casper, we have something for you to look at.”

“I’ll be right there. Will you come down and take over teaching Kat? We’re on the training floor.”

“Will do. Sounds fun. I’ll be there in a sec.” The orb shrank and resumed its place over Casper’s head.

“Analise, continue your lesson. Kat can observe until Sadie gets here.” Analise, Julie, and Preston moved back to the corner they’d been in when we arrived.

Casper turned to me. “Sorry to leave you so soon, however I had planned on Sadie teaching you today. It’ll be good for you to get to know each other, and she’s an expert in talisman magic. She’s been dying to get a closer look at yours for a while.”

“Don’t worry about it. I like Sadie; she seems nice.” I didn’t understand how Sadie could be a better teacher than Casper when she was a wand-wielder and Casper used a talisman, but I couldn’t argue with him. I was probably far beneath his level of expertise anyway.

“That she is.” Casper leaned in and mock whispered, “Watch out for Analise. She’ll eat you alive if you cross her.”

A stream of yellow lightning shot through the air between Casper and me. The visual was stunning, especially given that there were only a few inches of space to work with, but I felt no heat or anything else from it, purely ornamental.

“I heard that,” Analise shouted.

Casper smiled and disappeared into the teleportation ring, leaving me with a fully-trained mage who hated me.

I
didn’t know
how many times I’d have to see someone appear out of thin air for the sight to be less shocking, but it would take several more at least. Almost as soon as Casper teleported, Sadie arrived in his place.

Her affable smile cheered me, as I hadn’t been looking forward to spending any time with Analise. Overall, the entire atmosphere at the Armory was welcoming. I had the real sense that everyone worked together toward a common goal, but I didn’t think I’d ever feel comfortable with Analise no matter how long I had to get to know her.

“You ready to get started?” Sadie walked in such a lighthearted way that I swear she skipped.

“Yeah, I was just watching them use their wands to produce fire.”

Sadie waved her hand as if that was nothing. “They’re wand-wielders. They need different instruction. But don’t worry, we’ll get there soon. Follow me.” She led the way to a room next door that Casper hadn’t shown me.

“This is the actual armory. I know we call this entire place the Armory because it was back in the day, but this room here is our armory. We’ve got a ton of magical goodies that I think you’ll like. We normally don’t bring new recruits in here this early. In fact, I don’t think Julie and Preston have been in here yet, but we’re doing things differently.” Sadie winked and giggled, absolutely giddy about showing me this room. She placed her hand on the door handle and looked back at me, letting the anticipation build.

When she opened the door with a flourish, we walked into a long, narrow room with shelves that could be found in any utility closet running along each wall with an aisle down the middle. I looked up, half expecting to see flickering florescent lights. Illuminator orbs floated above our heads as they did everywhere else in the Armory. The shelves were packed with boxes and baskets of items I didn’t recognize, with no apparent organizational scheme. The excitement deflated as quickly as it had risen. With the exception of the lights, this room could appear in any building anywhere in the world. When Sadie saw my disappointment, both her arms shot out in front of her and she waved her hands, urging me not to pass judgment.

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but I promise you this is the best room in the building. It’s a regular Liliana’s orb.”

“A what?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that’s an Elustrian story. Don’t you have any Earth fables, stories about not judging something by the way it looks?”

“Sure.” The most amusing thing in the room was Sadie herself.

“Then this is that. I actually envy you being able to see it for the first time. Take this for instance.” She reached into a box and pulled out a triangular rock with a hole in the middle and tossed it to me. I caught it but just barely. The smooth gray stone fit perfectly in my palm. It didn’t appear to be anything special, just an ordinary rock someone had shaped.

“That’s a cloaker.”

“This is magical?” I looked at Sadie in disbelief.

“Yes. It eclipses your magic so you can’t be seen. Keep that one; we have a ton of them, not that they’re superabundant, but they’re pretty useless in Elustria.”

I shoved it in my pocket. “Why? Seems like being able to hide yourself would be handy anywhere.”

“I didn’t say hide you. It hides your magic, makes you appear like a void.”

“A void?” I felt like an idiot asking all these questions, but I needed to learn this stuff.

“You know, a void: the absence of everything. It makes you appear as if you have no magic whatsoever. In Elustria, where magic is everywhere, it’s practically painting a big red arrow above your head. Even a really bad tracker would be able to find you. Here on Earth, where magic is incredibly rare, they’re handy for hiding yourself from, say, an assassin. They’re not perfect by any means, most magic is able to be countered if you know how, but it’s handy nonetheless. You don’t have to worry about it here, though: the entire Armory is cloaked.”

Sadie was already walking farther down the aisle. “Now, what else do we have that you can use?” She tapped her chin with her forefinger as she scanned the shelves. “Here’s a communication orb. You should have one in your room, but you can take this one around with you. No harm in having more than one.”

“Yeah I’m not really sure how these work. I picked up the one in my room and said ‘Casper’ and he appeared, but is there more to it than that?”

“Yes and no. Since you’re here, the orb knew you were wanting to talk to Casper, so it alerted him. While you’re here, you’ll generally make outgoing calls with the communication orb, but the illuminators that are enchanted to follow you around will receive calls for you. You basically tell the communication orb who you want to speak with and it will contact them. The only trick to it is that you have to actually know the person, otherwise the orb on the receiving end will block the call. For instance, just because I say Raphael Godwin, doesn’t mean he’s going to magically appear. Can you imagine?”

Judging by the look on Sadie's face, I decided to forgo asking her who Raphael Godwin was. I didn’t want to be sidetracked by a tangent about someone who I could only assume was a famous and attractive mage in Elustria.

“Ooh, illusion powder.” Sadie grabbed what looked like a mix of dark purple and black sparkles in a shaker. “I can’t give you any of this, because we don’t have much, but if sprinkled on someone you can make them see whatever you want. As you can imagine, not something we want everyone having access to.” She replaced the shaker and continued walking.

“And here we have the reason we had to come in here today: a wand. Since I was coming in here to get it anyway, I figured I might as well show you the cool stuff we’ve got. Now, this wand is just a loaner; you won’t want to keep it anyways. We’re going to use it strictly as a training tool. The talisman is much more powerful, but I wanted you to have the experience of using a wand just to compare.” She handed me a stick that I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish from the one Mikael had shown at the dinner table last night. It didn’t feel magical—none of these items did.

“Now it’s time for some fun,” Sadie said. “Let’s get out of here and start using magic.”

When we left the supply closet, as I would be calling it, I noticed there were no locks on the door, but the handle glowed when Sadie closed the door behind her. Probably another magical object, opening for those allowed access and staying closed for anyone else.

The floor and walls of the room Sadie took me to were all made of some material that resembled gym mats. If they were white instead of green, I’d assume it was a padded room. Appropriate since I increasingly felt like I was going crazy. A few utilitarian chairs sat around the room. I didn’t understand why magic couldn’t be taught in a more inviting space.

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but when starting out, we need to use one of these training rooms. They have some magical enhancements to make sure you don’t accidentally, say, destroy the building.”

“Makes sense. Is that what the padding’s for?” I asked.

“That and to act as a cushion should you fall or blast someone into the wall. They are enchanted, but the padding’s there to prevent harm.”

Her answers never seemed to put me at ease.

“I’m guessing based on what you and Casper have said that you’re having trouble controlling the magic from the talisman.”

“So far it’s only protected me or caused things to happen when I lose control of my emotions. I’ve done a little with ice and water, but I wouldn’t say I had much control.”

Sadie nodded. “That’s pretty common—not the defensive charms, but the emotion thing. The charms on the talisman will only defend you from a direct attack, but they won’t go on the offensive. A charm like that would be too dangerous because you could end up hurting a friend with it.” I’d already hurt a friend with magic, no charm required. I wanted to be able to play with fire like Julie and Preston did, but I’d settle for being able to do anything I could control at this point. Before I could even think of defending myself, I needed to learn how to keep my magic from unintentionally harming others.

“So what exactly is the wand for?” I asked. The thin stick did nothing but make me worry I’d accidentally break it.

“A wand is usually a bit easier than a talisman to work with in the beginning when you haven’t grown up with magic. You’re the first latent mage I know of to have a talisman, and really, a wand is just another form of a talisman. We’ve found that mages on Earth respond best to a wand. I think it has something to do with all of your folklore around witches. Having a wand seems to make more sense to you. Yours is going to be a temporary tool, so we can get some early successes out of the way. I want you to leave this room today confident that you can perform magic.”

Sadie pulled her own wand from her sleeve. “In your talisman, the magic is stored in the amber stone. You interact with it to perform different spells. With the wand, the magic is stored in the wood, in little fibers called filaments. When you engage with the wand, you’ll see those filaments light up. It’s a different color depending on the mage and the wand. So for instance, you’ll see that when I do this”—she twirled her wand and frost came out of the tip—“my wand lights up with this purple design.” She spelled the word “wow” in ice. With a flick of her wrist it was gone. The purple threads illuminating her wand appeared to form an organic pattern with no rhyme or reason, untouched by man—or mage. “We’re going to start with water elemental magic since that’s the spell you activated in-game and the one you’ve already used a little with Casper. With the wand, you’ll feel what it’s like to exercise more control over it.”

“So are all the spells in the game real?”

“No, but a lot of them are. It’s our way of engaging any latent sparks out there. But we’re only focusing on one right now. I want you to hold out your wand and say ‘frostline’ while giving it a little flick.”

I did as she instructed, and to my amazement a line of frost shot from the tip of my wand. Sadie jumped up and down while clapping.

“Exactly! I told you you’d be able to do it. Did you feel how the wand helped channel your magic and directed it the way you wanted?”

“Yes.” I didn’t have to pretend to understand; I actually felt it. “How come it doesn’t feel this way when I use the talisman?”

“Oh, it will. The issue you’re running into with your talisman is mainly a mental one. Like I said, you put more faith in waving a wand around than you do shooting ice from your hands. The other issue is that the talisman is much more powerful than the wand, so it’s harder to control.”

“If talismans are more powerful, why doesn’t everyone use one?” All I heard was how great my talisman was, yet the triplets all chose wands.

“Not all talismans are equal. Yours is exceptionally powerful. Many mages don’t have access to a talisman, since it’s pretty rare to find one more powerful than a wand. Some mages have advanced so far with the wand that they wouldn’t want a talisman anyways. A person’s wand or talisman is a part of them, a very intimate part. It’s why we don’t want people touching them, and even the mention of taking one from someone is offensive, as Mikael pointed out. I don’t want you to get attached to this wand, so I won’t be treating it as if it’s yours. Your mother left you a talisman, and in our world, that’s a sacred thing.”

Even though I hadn’t yet developed the ability to use my talisman’s power, I could understand what she meant. A sort of bond had already developed between me and the amber stone. I didn’t know if it was because my mother left it to me or because it had saved my life. I suppose the reason didn’t matter as much as the fact that the bond existed. I could imagine after years of use, I wouldn’t want to use a wand or another talisman.

“Do mages ever use both?”

“Yes!” She clapped her hands together again as if I had said something remarkably clever. “You’ve hit on one of the big advantages mages have over sorcerers. Sorcerers can only perform one spell at a time. So for instance, if a sorcerer is in a fight, they’d have to first cast a shield and then an attack, whereas a mage could use multiple wands and talismans to cast a shield and an attack at the same time. It’s pretty rare, mainly because most mages don’t have a need to develop the skill. Your mother could double-wield.”

Performing two spells at once sounded intriguing but not like something I could do. The more I learned about my mother, the more badass she sounded. If it weren’t for the insistence of the talisman that I was its rightful owner, I wouldn’t believe I was her daughter. Already, I thought of my talisman as a separate entity with a will of its own, like a pet.

“Try the spell again, but really control it this time. Make a design or do something with it.”

I raised my wand and repeated the spell. I drew a heart in front of me and then pulled back my wand arm and flung it forward, shooting a bolt of ice from the tip through the middle of the heart. As soon as the ice went through the heart, the heart melted as my concentration left it.

“Wow, this is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”

“I’m glad you think so. Now try to do the frost spell using your talisman.” Sadie took my wand and placed it on a chair.

“The frost came out of the tip of the wand, so why doesn’t it come out of the talisman itself?” An amusing image of me pulling my shoulders back and thrusting my chest from side to side to get ice to come out of the talisman filled my mind.

“The frost comes out of the wand because that’s what you want—it’s where you’re channeling it to. The talisman channels the magic for you and directs it wherever you tell it to. If you wanted, you could shoot ice out of your elbow using a wand or talisman. It’s simply more intuitive to do it with your hands or through your wand, if you’re using one.”

Holding to the confidence the wand had given me, I lifted my hand and used the spell to draw a heart again. It looked more like a lopsided circle and was much bigger than I intended. When I sent the arrow through the middle, the heart exploded and the arrow crashed into the wall, giving me flashbacks of shooting Alex. The unwieldy magic of my talisman felt completely different from the wand.