Month 12, Day 3, 8:30 AM

Marie

“Do you have a jacket or cardigan or something?” Poe asked.

“Why?” Marie generally was warm enough without much more than her dress. Yes, everyone else around her insisted that she should be cold. She just never felt that way.

“It’s a little wet today, and on the roof it will be cold, and we will have to wait. Frigg is a little temperamental around strangers.”

“I have a boiled wool ruana cloak.”

“Is it black?”

“It’s. Ugh. It’s black on one side and red on the other.”

“Red. Really?”

“Red is ok. Ok?” Marie muttered. She didn’t like red, but her Mama insisted that she have something she could show the Morrows that she was, on whatever technicality, one of them, because she would be safer that way. In Morrows territory she could wear it red side out.

Ruana were cheap to make and own, because a ruana was not much more than a square blanket with a slit halfway to the middle so you could drop it over your shoulders and wrap one side of the front over the other. Or, you could belt it around your waist and make a sort of sleeveless jacket.

“Ok. Let’s go up to the roof. I’ll show you what we need to do when we get there.”

They made their way to the roof, with a short stop for Marie to get her ruana and cloak pin. She wrapped it around her shoulders, and took the brass pin, which had been made from a broken skeleton key with handle broken off, to pin it.

Encased in the waist-length thick wool, she ascended the stairs through the attic and climbed the hatch onto the roof.

Marie gawked at the city in the misty morning. The Agency’s building wasn’t the tallest one on this street, but it was slightly taller than those around it. From here Marie could see down on the people walking on the streets, over the roofs to the vast city of buildings, forest of chimneys, and had a clear view of the great white walls that surrounded them.

The top of the walls, where the University and the High Crown sat, were obscured by a fog that had rolled off the gulf that morning.

But, the sun was just beginning to burn it away, so that she could see everything in the distance shadowed in blue and white. Everything had a dream-like quality, and even the sounds of city seemed muffled, like hearing voices while hiding under the blankets.

“Poe. Master. … This is kinda nice. It’s a little wet, but this is a pretty nice roof. Will we be doing much magic up here?”

“No. Well, maybe. It depends on how many lessons we do on animism and shamanry.”

The roof was a little cold. In fact, it was not a very pleasant day. There was a sort of drizzle and mist, and Marie’s black hair was already wet. She was grateful the cloak was there to keep the intermittent damp off her clothes.

Poe sat on the roof next to a bowl, and gestured for her to join him.

Marie thought the bowl might be made of iron, because it showed some reddish rust spots on the side, but it appeared enameled with a black and shiny interior. Unfamiliar markings surrounded its rim.

“So. First lesson. All magic requires a conduit. Almost anything can be a conduit, but there is one type of conduit that you must never, ever, use. Have you ever seen a bright dust addict?”

“Sure. Last year, Paleface Tom came in to the shop and he tried to stab the Morrows’ auditor, Truthful Harry, over money. It was so weird, because Paleface had been a Morrow courier for awhile, Truthful Harry was his friend, and Paleface never seemed like he was a fighter or anything. Really, Paleface wasn’t like some of the Morrows: he didn’t beat on employees, and he never even tried for a freebie before.” Marie sighed. “Anyway, Harry couldn’t keep get ahold of him, and Dinky had to come. They both grabbed him, and got the knife away from him, but Paleface bit Dinky. Dinky didn’t like that.”

Marie thought about the hot rage she’d seen in Dinky; and Paleface just seemed completely wild and screaming wordlessly. Marie had a lot of nightmares after, and Mama hadn’t even scolded her about it.

She continued, “Paleface wasn’t very big, but he kept trying to hurt Dinky and Harry. They couldn’t even grab him. He was super strong and Dinky had to hit him until he stopped moving. The coppers came and made us tell about what happened, and Dinky didn’t even get in trouble. Later, they said Paleface was on bright dust.”

Poe blanched.

“You saw …”

Marie nodded.

“That was much worse than …” He stopped himself from pointless commentary, and he worked back around to the topic. “So, bright dust makes the people that use it feel invincible. And, it’s not all feelings; they become stronger, they move faster, they don’t feel pain. They also can’t feel right from wrong, can’t feel empathy, and become irrationally violent. And once the user has felt like that once, they want that feeling again, over and over, until they only want the drug and nothing else.”

“And? Mama has told me not get mixed up with stuff like that. You couldn’t … You don’t need drugs to learn magic do you?”

“What? Myrddin no! I’m trying to explain.” Poe rubbed his face with a hand. “So, the minimum you need to cast magic is a conduit for the magic to flow, but. Never. Use. Yourself. As. A. Conduit.” Poe looked at Marie meaningfully.

“Is it like bright dust?”

“It’s something like bright dust. You will never want to stop casting spells. You won’t stop until you are dead or are an aberrant. Bright dust addiction is actually better; you can treat someone addicted to bright dust. There’s nothing you can do for someone who cast magic using their body as a conduit. You would be better getting addicted to bright dust and having your friend bash your head in.”

“I think I understand.” Marie wasn’t sure, but she’d known people who used drugs, so if it was just an addiction it would be bad, but adults liked to exaggerate. Something in her tone did not convince Poe.

“I am not so sure you do. Let’s use an another example. Have you ever been afraid?”

“I mean, sure, I guess. Scary things have happened at the parlor.” There weren’t murders on a nightly basis or anything, but troublemakers inside the Morrows and out could show up. “Sometimes people got hurt? A spider jumped on my hand once and it scared me.” For a second. She wasn’t frightened by bugs. It was, however, a very disturbing black spider that seemed to hop about. ‘It’s not so scary when you get a proper look at it.’ Marie thought.

“Spiders are not really scary or anything.” Marie reassured Poe. And maybe herself, a little.

“Have you ever been afraid of a fire?” Poe asked.

“I guess, a little. It’s hot.”

“Would you ever jump in a fire? Like run into a burning building.”

“No.”

“Not even to save your Mama?”

“Well, I might to save Mama.”

“What if you knew the fire would kill you if you jumped in, would you still do it?”

“Would it save my Mama?”

“No.”

Marie knew what the right answer was. ‘I’d try anyway.’ Marie thought. ‘That had to be the right answer, wasn’t it? It’s your mama. You do whatever it took to try to save your mama, wouldn’t you?’

“I guess I’d try.” Marie said aloud.

“Marie, you are a credit to your Mama. But, fire here is a metaphor. An example. This is the problem with channeling magic through your body: If you jump into that fire, you will die. The heat and flames will burn you until there is nothing left. Worse, casting magic without a conduit is also like Bright Dust: you wouldn’t even care about your Mama anymore. You could be standing right next to her in the fire, and you’d just rather burn than save her.”

Marie though this sounded like a very bad way to die. She knew death; she’d seen it. A homeless man that froze in the alley. A prostitute beaten too hard, and too often, that alleviated the pain with too much alcohol and illicit potions.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You need to know it.” Poe lowered his voice. “Horrible things happen to people that choose, even for an instant, to channel magic through their bodies. They poke out their own eyes to see better. They cast magic to fly and never come down. They’ll try to raise the dead, even if it’s futile, and sacrifice themselves to try to make it happen. They’ll open portals to the elemental planes, jump through, and never be seen again.”

Poe did not relent, and he moved his face quite close, eyes boring into her. Poe delivered this explanation softly, whispering it:

“And, they become aberrants: creatures of magic that propagate a single magical effect. A creature that turned every living thing it touched into gold: animals, plants, insects, their friends, family, children, anything! Then, surrounded by the golden dead, it sought out other living things to turn into gold. One propagated a mist of toxin that killed only people, then those that died turned into more of the mist, killing endlessly. One man turned himself into a tree; those that saw it unprotected would dream of bliss living under its golden canopy, but they would never wake up.” Poe sighed. “The Red Guard protects us from these monsters. But don’t forget, they all start as people, and you never want to make the mistake of casting through your body or you can become one too.”

As each story grew more terrifying, Marie began to wonder how they managed to live in world with magic at all.

“Do you understand Marie?”

She nodded.

“So. If you are to perform magic, what do you need first, before all other things?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“A conduit.”

“And if you have nothing to use as a conduit?”

“I … won’t cast magic.” Marie replied, a bit wide eyed.

“That’s right.” Poe leaned back and brought out from his coat a piece of cerelium the size of a cherry stone. It was utterly clear, like a perfect piece of glass. But it wasn’t cut or shaped in any way. “This is your first conduit, Marie. You need larger and larger conduits as you practice, but your first spells will be small, so you don’t need much.”

Marie opened her hand and he dropped the shiny stone onto her palm. She wrapped her fingers around it, and rubbed her thumb across the surface. It felt smooth, but not regular. It also felt heavy for its size, but she might have been imagining it.

“You have the first piece of modern sorcery: a conduit. Practical sorcery requires three additional things: Will, Word, and Sacrifice. Let’s do a very simple spell.” Poe dig through his pockets and found a silver coin, a black piece of a raven’s beak, and a berry that looked like it was a blueberry, but was yellow and shimmered whenever you squeezed it.

He then pulled out dividers with a pair of sharp ends, metal straight edge, and a scribing tool.

“First we’ll mark out the spell array.”

Marie now understood why the geometry lessons were in the book.

Poe showed her how to lay out a circle using the tools, and showed her how to mark it with a perfect triangle. He used the scribing to outline and draw more etched circles with bright lines on the dark metal roof, then connected them with lines, then he showed her how all these lines made a simple spell array. Then he put all the pieces at their proper places. While he did, he described the magical effect they were going to get.

“Centuries ago, hunters would call animals to them so that they could trap an eat them. So, they’d call the animals with birdsong, the sound of other animals, or other tricks. We’re going to do that now. This doesn’t summon animals, or compel them, or anything so extreme. This just attracts their attention, and they come and look.”

Marie nodded. “So, this spell convinces animals to do what you want?”

“No. It makes sound. Controlling the minds of creatures is a different, difficult, and sometimes forbidden magic. It’s Blood magic more often than not. There is also the magic of Witches and Animism, Shamans, and other things to connect with animals, but those aren’t practical sorcery.” Poe shrugged. “Some sorcerers might talk about how modern magic is better. And, it can be. But. Do not look down on the old magics; good sorcerers study modern magic and understand it’s aspects to the fullest. Great sorcerers understand the history of magical practices as well. Take Grandmaster Lacer for example …” Poe paused at Marie’s confused look.

“The Professor that came into the Agency? Is he good or something?”

Poe sputtered a bit. “You’ve never heard of Thaddeus Lacer?”

“Not really. Should I have?”

“How can you not … ” Poe muttered, but then seemed to think better of the question.

Marie wasn’t sure what the problem was. She’d never really cared about magic before. It wasn’t that odd to see a wand here and there, and the laundry at the parlor had some enchanted stuff, but who could keep track of specific sorcerers? Most of the ones she knew were on the wanted posters.

“Anyway,” Poe said, “my point is, someone doesn’t become an Archmage without knowing a lot of different magics. This particular spell will transfer heat into sound. I’ll try to teach you several spells that transfer minor amounts of different kinds of energy into other types of energy: heat, light, sound, force, magnetic attraction and so on. That way you can learn some basic exercises that will improve and strengthen your will.”

Marie could only nod. She wondered what “magnetic attraction” was, but it seemed like Poe was in his stride.

“Now, tell me what you know about sound.”

Marie thought for a moment.

“Uh, if I cover my ears, sound isn’t as loud? Musical instruments make sound by hitting or bowing a string, and people make sound by singing and that sort of thing …” She felt a little dumb. Was there more to know about sound than that?

“Excellent. You already know the most important part of sound. We hear with our ears. What we think of as sound is actually vibrating air. Examinations have shown that inside our ear is a tiny, tiny drum that vibrates sympathetically with the moving air, and a tiny little snail-shaped structure that transfers these sounds to our brain, which processes the sound into what we hear. If we cover our ears, or stuff them with out fingers, or cotton, then we don’t hear anything, because we’ve blocked the vibrations. Sound is just our mind’s interpretation of the vibrating air. Follow me so far?”

“But, how will magic make the sound?”

“In a way, the same way that we sing. Have you studied the chapters on music in the primer?”

“Yes. I’ve covered string instruments and singing.”

“So, when singing, the vocal chords in our throat vibrate as the air moves past them, and we change the shape of our airway, tighten and loosen the chords, and change the shape of our mouth to make the different pitches and sounds.” Poe grinned. “It sounds impossible to describe it, but we practice our whole lives to make these sounds, so it’s thoughtlessly easy.”

“But, what does sound have to do with magic?”

“If you want to make a sound like a raven, you need to understand that your spell is going to mimic the vibration of that you would make if you were a raven, breathing in the air, and pushing it out through your craw to make the sound. Let me show you the parts of the spell array.”

Marie thought Poe had been pretty detailed so far, but as he explained the parts of the spell array, how the comments symbolized the raven and the sound a raven makes, she realized that he had just barely begun. He talked about power requirements, will, and components, and the difference between glyphs and words (which this spell array used both). He also explained how it wouldn’t be safe to cross the boundary of the array and how heat from the air would power this magic. After a great deal of explaining, he finally imitated the “kraa’ sound with his voice.

Poe then guided Marie through the her very first spell. She couldn’t really describe it. She took some time to finally capture the sense of demanding that the spell work: just willing it to happen. There was a sense of touching without using her fingers, or tasting without eating, or seeing without opening her eyes. She was moving the magic through the spell array with the conduit and her thoughts alone.

“You must desire the spell.” Poe whispered to her. “Like you want nothing else. Like all you ever wanted was to make the sound of a raven. That’s what using your will is like. It’s pure, refined intent.”

Activating the spell array, out of nothing, came a strange “kraa” that was deep and foreboding. It was real, like a raven unseen, but, like it existed just a pace away. And, it was much louder than Marie expected. The sound wasn’t just heard. It penetrated her chest, and the call rumbled in her bones.

“Very good Marie! Very very good.” Poe exclaimed.

Marie felt a thrill at his praise. She did it!

“Oh.” She sighed. For as good as it felt to accomplish the spell, Marie felt very tired. She thought she’d slept, but she craved a nap.

“Now rest a bit. This is your first time casting magic, and it takes energy. Your Will gets used up, and right now, you don’t have much to start with. If you try to use more than you have, you’ll get more than tired. You’ll have headaches to start, then dizziness, irritability, irrationality, unconsciousness and death.” Poe ticked each of these off with his fingers. “You’ll be careful then, to not cast? To only cast when I am supervising you?”

Marie nodded her agreement.

“I’m going to take a moment to select an offering to Frigg. I’ll try to pick something that will symbolize this boy.” Poe seemingly felt around inside his coat. Marie couldn’t tell how many pockets it had, but it seemed like a lot, given how much rummaging he seemed to be doing. Finally, he pulled a moth from his pocket.

It was alive and he nearly dropped it.

“What the … ?” Poe recoiled.

“Looks like you need to clean your coat more often.” Marie was teasing him; Poe’s clothes, while gaudy, never showed a speck of dirt or stains. Even on the misty roof, his coat didn’t even appear wet.

“I assure you, my coat is perfectly clean.” Frank held the moth between his fingers, and it beat its wings against them. “Now, where did you come from?” He asked it. It didn’t seem to have an answer for him.

“Do ravens eat moths?” Marie asked.

“Good question. I will answer with what I know: I have never seen a raven eat a moth, and I have never read or heard that ravens eat, specifically, moths.”

Marie considered this answer for a moment.

“But, that doesn’t tell me if Ravens eat moths. Why don’t you just say ‘I don’t know’?”

“Because it is fundamentally difficult for anyone to admit they don’t know something, and I don’t like it when I don’t have an answer.” Pow hummed a bit as the moth struggled in his hand. “Let’s do an experiment. Ravens eat many things; and, being a bird, many birds eat bugs. Using this general idea, I’m going to guess that Frigg will eat this bug if offered. I’ll put it in the bowl, and then we will test.”

“Won’t it just fly away?”

“No.” The moth stilled in Poe’s hand. He gently placed it inside the bowl. Defying all of Marie’s experiences with moths, it stayed there, crawling around inside the bowl.

“By the way, if Frigg eats the moth, will we have proven that ravens eat moths?” Poe asked.

“Yes?”

“No. We will have proven that Frigg ate this moth. And if Frigg doesn’t eat the moth, what then?”

“Um. That Frigg didn’t eat this moth?”

“Yes. In that moment Frigg chose not to eat the moth, and we won’t know exactly why not. Whatever she chooses, we won’t generalize yet. After many experiments and observations, eventually we’ll know. But not with the first observation.”

Poe barely finished speaking when the shadow of a raven streaked between them, then wings flashed over Poe’s shoulder. A huge black raven bounded between them, and it knocked over the bowl. The moth fluttered out of the bowl, smacked Poe in the face, then flew erratically into the morning sky.

The raven landed properly, hopped back and forth, then stared straight at Poe.

“Kraa.” The raven seemed very certain.

Then, seemingly agitated at the bowl, the raven pecked at it, then twisted its head to get a good look at the bowl and Marie, then flew onto Marie’s shoulder.

Marie squeaked, but she tried to stay very very still. Her heart pounded.

She’d never been this close to a raven before. This one seemed bigger than the ones flying over the city. But maybe it seemed so big because the raven’s sharp beak was inches from her face. It’s talons bit into her cloak, but didn’t seem to be gripping very hard. Marie turned her head slowly and tried to see the whole bird.

Her feathers looked like a black rainbow in sunlight. ‘She’s beautiful.’ Marie thought. The shine on her feathers was only apparent when you could see her closely.

“Ah.” Poe said. He had a smudge where the moth hit him in the face.

“Um. Master Poe?”

“Welcome Frigg. This is my apprentice, Marie.” Poe slightly bowed his head.

Frigg fluffed Marie’s hair with her sharp beak, then she hopped off Marie’s shoulder and strutted back and forth between Poe and her. Marie wasn’t sure how you were supposed to greet a raven. If Poe was planning on explaining, he hadn’t gotten to that part yet. So, she settled on a compliment. After all, wasn’t that the best way to make a first impression?

“What clever hunter you are!” Then, Marie realized that the Raven had her brass cloak pin grasped in its talons. “And, you are a cunning thief.” Marie concluded wryly.

Marie wasn’t sure if she should try to take the pin back or not. Poe interrupted her before she could do anything about it.

“Frigg. I had a question about a boy … Calder says he’s cursed.”

“Kraa. Kraa!” Frigg replied.

Poe took this pronouncement gravely, frowning and furrowing his brow a bit.

Frigg nodded. Or, that’s what she seemed to have done. How could a bird understand him?

Frigg looked at Marie for a long moment.

“Kraa.” Frigg said quietly. She picked up the cloak pin in her beak, and she flapped he wings and landed, again, on Marie’s shoulder. She bumped her head against Marie, then she pushed heavily off Marie and flapped up and away, whirling and flying back off toward the Mires with Marie’s cloak pin still in her possession.

“So.” Poe said after watching Frigg fly off. “That was interesting.”

“She did not eat the moth?”

“No.”

“She stole my cloak pin?”

“Yes.”

“I need another one.”

“Yes.”

“What was that about?”

“Magic. But a very specific kind. It’s called Augry, and most diviners use it with groups of animals, or clouds, or similar.” Poe replied. “We can read out hints of the future through augury, but what we really get is an image of the shape of the present. It’s like looking at the bottom of a canal and trying to see the fish through the murk. Frigg’s behavior gives us hints, if we can understand them, into the future. It’s part of the magic.” Poe smiled. “She likes you, for some reason. I didn’t think she wanted me to take you as an apprentice, but it seems like that’s because I’m not good enough for you.”

“She stole my cloak pin. What’s that mean?”

“She likes cloak pins.” Poe answered. Marie felt this did not explain anything. But, she trusted Poe, and wanted to be a good apprentice, so she didn’t complain.