Eddie reached out and turned the front cover to reveal the first page. It was blank except for six words enclosed in a decorative border of briars, all inscribed in what looked suspiciously like fresh blood:
This book belongs to:
Edina Pendle
Okay, not creepy at all. She guessed the book was officially hers now. She flicked through, scouring over the pages in case the book changed its mind about her, if this was her only chance to peek inside a real magical book then she would make the most of it.
There was no contents page, instead it was divided into various sections including Spells, Potions, Hexes, and even a smaller part at the back for Curses. There were also pages and pages of notes dotted throughout, with many entries adapted over time. Some had whole sections crossed out and rewritten. The potion section was most affected by these improvements, it was littered with entries in the margins such as “best stewed under a waning crescent”, “more effective with natterjack toad spawn” and “under no conditions take with wine”. That last one made her grin, it seemed even magical concoctions weren’t exempt from harmful interactions with alcohol.
Eddie wondered who this book had previously belonged to and if they were missing it now. It was well-loved and much-used if the thousands of notes and amendments were anything to go by. There were far more pages than the thickness of the closed book suggested, as if it had been enchanted to appear thinner and more portable. Each section had hundreds of pages, with the paper far more aged and fragile at the start, as if the first and last entries were separated by hundreds of years. Which couldn’t be possible, could it? The handwritten notes were throughout the book, so the previous owner must have been hundreds of years old by that logic. She wondered if she should be on the lookout for an old crone knocking on her door, looking for their spellbook.
Steeling herself, she decided to try one out. It was late but her tiredness was all but forgotten. Eddie tucked a few loose curls behind her ears, muttering out loud as she turned to the Spell section, “What looks like an easy one?”
On command, the book jolted in her hands, reanimating, and the pages flashed past until it lay still once again, open near the beginning of the chapter. At the top, in neat black typeface, was an entry titled Creation of Vectors: Part 1 - To Move Objects Between Two Points (M1: V1 R0).
Next to a line drawing of a pair of parted lips was the word Salire, accompanied by the instructions for pronunciation, “Sa-li-re”. Underneath the incantation, and taking up the rest of the page, were several more drawings depicting various stages of a leaf floating from one palm to the other.
Eddie recovered quickly from the shock of the book moving of its own accord for a second time, and ran to her kitchen windowsill. She grabbed a leaf off her neglected basil plant, making a mental note to water it again, then held out her hands to match the diagrams and spoke the command slowly, staring hard at the leaf to check for any movement. It lay flat and withered in her palm. She rolled her shoulders, held the leaf up to eye-level and spoke more forcefully this time.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Salire!”
Still nothing. Huffing, she closed her fist and leaned on her knuckles over the table, looking for any notes in the margin that would help her with this simple spell. Evidently the previous owner had mastered basic magic as there was nothing but those two lines and the drawings on the page.
“What am I doing wrong?” She rubbed her temple frustratedly.
Once again, the book answered her. It helpfully turned its pages as if it had been witnessing her pitiful attempts at spellwork and was itching for a chance to offer advice. It settled on a page that looked as if it had been copied and pasted from a textbook. This entry was titled Spell Scoring and read as follows:
Magical Manifestation (Score: 1-14) - the overall difficulty rating for the embodiment of the theoretical concept. M scores are calculated from:
* Visualisation (Score: 1-7) - the formation of the whole spell, from start to finish, as a mental image
* Ritual (Score: 0-7) - the complexity of ritual needed to exact a result
It is advised that beginners do not attempt spells with an M score above 4.
Intermediary witches should work on M5-M10.
Advanced level magic includes spells of M11 upwards.
Remember, confidence is key!
Salire had a manifestation score of 1, it was no wonder the book had suggested it. As it required no ritual, Eddie supposed the only thing missing was visualisation. Deciding to give the spell one more try before she headed to bed, she held up her hands, the now slightly-crumpled leaf raised once again to her eye level. She concentrated hard, picturing it floating up from her hand, through the air, and landing on the adjacent empty palm. She repeated this a few times, to the point where she was almost cross-eyed from staring, each time feeling slightly less ridiculous and far more confident. She took a steadying breath and when she was focused, Eddie uttered the incantation into the silence of the room.
“Salire.”
The leaf floated upwards, hovered a few inches in the air, then drifted down and relaxed onto her hand.
Eddie squealed. She’d done it! She picked up the book and hugged it, jumping up and down. “Thank you thank you thank you!” She chanted, grinning. Maybe she was a little delirious, but she wasn’t sure just how aware the book was of what was going on and she was the kind of person who said please and thank you to an Alexa, so she was taking no chances here. When she set it down on the table, one of the talons reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m so glad we met, Book. We are going to have so much fun together!” This time it answered her with a genial pat to her hand before returning to its frozen form.
One hour and several coffees later, Eddie had mastered Salire. She could now make pretty much any object leap from one point to another, her many attempts had things flying through the air at ever increasing speeds as her confidence grew. Strewn around the floor and on every surface were books, cutlery, soup tins, fridge magnets and basil leaves, the potted plant now reduced to a few bare stalks. She even managed to get a dining chair to fly the length of the room, although it took a few attempts and knocked the picture frame of her parents off the wall in the process.
She collapsed on the couch, content. Her head pounded, she was exhausted, but she was so happy it almost hurt. She felt as though she was standing on a precipice, and when she jumped off her life would get really interesting, really fast. She couldn’t wait to work her way through the book, and made a mental note to take it to work with her in the morning with some sticky-notes to earmark interesting looking beginner spells.
A corner of Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals dug into her side, so she pulled it out from under her and placed it on the floor before laying back, sighing. Daisy, who had taken cover in the hallway from the maelstrom of flying objects, padded over and licked Eddies face affectionately. Eddie laughed, scratching her behind her ears.
“Things are about to get so much better Daisy. At last, our luck has changed.”
The dog wagged her tail, turned in a circle and lay down with a huff, resting her large golden head on her paws. Within minutes she was snoring again. Eddie watched the moon rise out of the windows, thinking of all the possibilities that were now open to her. Her last thought was that she should talk to Mr Maccabee tomorrow, to see if they can agree on a rental agreement for her shop. Eddie’s Emporium had a nice ring to it. With a smile on her face, her eyelids drifted closed.