“Gray, you shouldn’t try casting spells, at least until I ask around a bit more. But it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t teach you. No dangerous spells though.”
We had taken back our place in front of the desk, and our lesson had resumed.
“As you saw, teaching and learning magic is extremely simple, you need to know the spell, touch someone while using it, and he’ll have access to it for the rest of his life.”
“Does this mean that even if you’re a nature witch, you could use the same type of magic Natasha uses?” I asked.
“Yes. As I said, there is no type of magic, just ways of gathering it. And that is usually how we define ourselves. Some witches, or family of witches, specialize in one or another spell, and some ways of gathering are more effective than others.” She seemed shy all of a sudden. “The reason why nature magic is so…well…unpopular, is because it’s a really weak way of gathering energy. It’s the safest but… if you look at Natasha and I, we’re both the same age, but she still looks like a twenty-year-old… I’m sorry.”
Marie put her hand over the middle-aged woman’s shoulder.
“Illy, honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a more caring and nicer teacher. I can’t promise you I’ll only be a nature witch, as…well…I need to be able to get myself out of trouble and I may need a lot of magic for that, but your explanations are really clear, and your magic is super cool.”
Illy gave her a bright smile. “Don’t worry about the nature part, I’ve delved in plenty of different ways of gathering over the years, so I know what it is to be young. It’s just, I like this path. I don’t want to outlive my husband for fifty years, and this method just makes me strong and healthy, while still aging normally with him.” The confession seemed so spontaneous and wholesome, it actually made me tear up slightly, so I looked away.
I had the urge to paint her and her husband now, but I wanted to meet him first.
“That’s actually so sweet.” Marie told her, slightly emotionless.
“Thank you. Let’s get back to it.” Illy said before continuing the lesson. “So, just by taking my hand, I’ll teach you plenty of the spells I know. If you make friends with other witches, you could always ask them to teach you their spells as well.”
That sounded too good to be true.
Marie had come to the same conclusion: “Isn’t that a bit…idyllic?”
Illy gave a sad smile. “It’s how it’s supposed to be. We’re not many, and no fighting is allowed within a coven. After the second world war, fighting between covens has been banned as well.” She sighed. “But yes, most witches will ask for an exchange of knowledge at least. I’m not partisan of this selfish way of doing. So many gathering methods and spells have been lost over time, just because some stubborn witch didn’t want to teach what she knew.”
I made a mental note for later to ask Astarte to tell us about the World War II from the U’s point of view, that seemed like a great story.
Our teacher continued talking: “That is something you have to promise though. You won’t use magic to do bad stuff or fight other witches.”
“Shouldn’t you have asked that at the beginning?” Marie very justly remarked.
“I…forgot…” Admitted Illy.
I laughed. “I’ll use my scary water-making abilities to make people’s pools overflow!” I said with a villainous voice.
“Don’t worry Illy, I shall stop her with the same water-making abilities!” Marie couldn’t resist one-upping my maniacal fantasy: she had said that with an overexaggerated heroic voice.
“What…?” Then Illy began laughing again. “I always forget you two are new to this world. You have to be careful though, lots of U members take things way too seriously. They’ll believe you. Could you promise me though, that you won’t do bad things with my magic?”
I stopped smiling, and very seriously answered. “I shall not use it for evil deeds.”
“I’ll only use it to defend myself or my loved ones.” Marie said solemnly, but with her smile still there.
“Thank you. But please, use it to teach others too. Well. only U members of course…sadly.”
She had whispered that last word, but I understood what she meant. Even the simple water magic she had taught us could save every arid country from starvation or desertification in a snap. But goodhearted witches like Illy weren’t allowed to teach it, in fear of human persecution and the inflexible First Law from the U.
I changed the subject. “How do you create magic then?”
“From scratch?” Illy perked up. “That’s an excellent question! By perfectly understanding the concept you want the energy to transform into. The best example is actually pyromancy.”
“Pyromancy?” Marie said excitedly.
“Yup. I know a few spells, but they consume way more energy than most, so I’ll refrain from showing them to you. They are quite dangerous too, as you would expect. But basically, before science discovered atoms, and how heat propagated, there had been only one recorded family of pyromancers in human history, who disappeared during the roman empire, if my history is correct. Once science discovered atoms, the spells were almost immediately found again, and now most witches can use one or two pyromancy spells.”
“You need…science...to create magic?” Marie asked, astonished.
“Well, yes, basically. Most spells have been discovered with trial and error, but with scientific basis and research, it makes discovering new spells oh so easy. Let me demonstrate with something safer than fire. I’ll teach it to you at the same time.” She held out her hands.
As I grabbed her left one and Marie the other, the nature witch closed her eyes. I felt the energy appear, just like before, but this time, it took a different shape. It was wrong to call it that, as it was not visual in any way, but I could not explain it better.
Once again, something in me just unlocked, like it had always been there.
The old book on the table closed on its own, then began levitating towards the shelf hidden behind the roses, where it just put itself back in place.
“Telekinesis!” Marie said loudly.
I winced.
“Yup. This one is super useful, as you would imagine, and doesn’t cost much in terms of energy, as long as the object isn’t too heavy. And it was only discovered in the 19th century.” Illy explained.
“Imagine tidying up the kitchen!” Marie exclaimed.
“Yeah, doing everything from your couch… you’ll get obese.” I commented.
“I hadn’t thought about that…”
Illy scratched the back of her head. “She’s right though, you shouldn’t use it to get out of your chores, or you’ll quickly look like me.” She said with a saddened voice.
“Oh Illy, I didn’t mean…” I began.
“No, no. I’m fat. I’m trying to get thinner, but I got too used in using magic, and it's really holding me back.”
“You’re not that fat.” Marie said with her usual tactfulness.
“Marie…”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Illy sniffed loudly. “No, no. You’re not upsetting me, it’s true. I could use a spell to get rid of it but…”
“There is a spell to get rid of fat?” Marie and I said at the same time.
“What do you need to know something like that?” Marie said to me with a mean look.
“What? I could gain weight.”
“This is so much something Ray wouldn’t have cared about before.”
“Don’t try to pin the fault on me, you asked the same thing.”
Illy interjected: “Erm…I don’t really know what you two are talking about, but yes, there is a pyromancy type spell which can burn fat.”
“Pyromancy?” I asked.
“Yes. It hurts a lot, burning fat is quite literal, in this case.”
“Oh.” I was much less interested in it, now.
“What is it, though?” Marie persisted.
I sighed out loud.
“I’ll show it to you another day, it’s more complex, and more demanding magic-wise, so you’ll need to grow your conduit a bit before you can use it.”
Marie’s smile fell.
“I’ll give you plenty of papers, and a plant though, take magic from it every day for one minute, until…this weekend good for you?”
Her smile came back. “Yes! I’ll be delighted!”
“What about you, Gray?”
“Sure, but I probably won’t participate though. I have to work.”
“You’re a painter, right? Like a digital artist or something?”
“Nope, old-fashioned one.”
“Oh, that’s rare.” Illy said nothing else.
I smiled awkwardly.
“Yup, best way to piss of his dad, that was.” Marie explained.
“Hey!” I protested.
“Oh, you were rebellious?” Illy asked.
“Were?” Marie laughed.
I growled.
This time, Illy noticed the inhuman sound, and looked at me funny.
“Did you make that noise?”
Fortunately, before I could answer, another voice made its apparition.
“Mooom? Did you use my computer again?” A teenager penetrated the premises of the greenhouse.
“Rose, Honey! I told you to wait for my lesson to be done.”
“It’s fine. I need my computer.”
In front of us was the absolute quintessential teenager. She had a cutesy face, contrasted heavily by the piercings on her nose and ears. She had short black hair, a t-shirt with “fuck the police” written on under a dark sweater with an obscure band name and her jeans had one too many holes.
“Where are your beanie and scarf, honey?”
“Forgot them at school.” That was a lie, I noted.
Marie and I said nothing, observing the scene.
“Oh no, that’s…” Illy began, then looked at us and contained her anger. “The computer is in the kitchen, I used it to look up some recipes.”
“Why not use your phone?” The teenager asked aggressively.
“Rose. Don’t talk to me like that. You know it’s written too small on my phone, and me and your father were the ones who paid for your computer anyway.”
“You mean dad paid it. You’re just the housewife.”
“Rose! Get out! We’ll have a talk together later. You see I have guests, and you can’t even say hi!”
The teenager finally looked at us.
“Hey.” She said with a flat voice.
“Rose.” I tilted my head.
“Hi, little bundle of originality.” Said Marie with a mean smile.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“What?” Rose said angrily.
“What?” Answered Marie innocently.
“Rose! Go to your room.” Illy interposed herself and tried to sound authoritative.
“Sure, sure.” The moody teen left, not impressed in the least.
Illy looked back at us. “I think this means the end of today’s lesson. Sorry. I’d understand if you don’t want to stay for dinner. My son never gave me any problems, but Rose is…well she doesn’t listen to me anymore.”
“She does.” Marie countered. “Just with a five-year latency.”
“What do you mean?” Illy asked, almost hopeful.
“I was like her when I was younger. Gave my mom hell. I feel really bad about it now, but I remember most of what she told me at the time, and try to better myself now.”
Illy gave us a sad look.
“I don’t…She liked learning magic so much when she was younger, but since…It’s just different, I’m afraid.”
“In any case, we’ll stay for dinner. I want to meet your husband.” I decided.
“Oh, Henry is a genius, you’ll see. I’m really happy you’ll be there. We’re so isolated from everything, we barely get any visitors, and Henry usually works at home, so he doesn’t have many coworker friends.”
“What does he do, exactly?”
“Software programming. He coded some of the lines in the Mars Rover, you know!” She said extremely proudly.
That was pretty cool, undeniably.
“In any case.” She continued. “I need to begin cooking. You like steak?”
The word alone made me salivate.
“Yup, we’re not vegetarians.” Marie answered in my stead, giving me a grin.
“Oh! Before I forget.” She foraged a plastic bag from out of the foliage and looked inside it. “Great, it was spared. Here Marie, ink and paper. I prepared one for Gray too but…”
“Not really useful. No problem, I understand.”
“And also, take the Ungodly One.” She took the inverted root plant and gave the whole lot to Marie.
“Oh. Wait.” Said my girlfriend, suddenly her hands full.
“Perfect. She needs water every day, but not too much. Put it in a bright spot too, if you can. But don’t let too many people see it, it’s not supposed to exist. You can follow me inside now.” Illy continued undisturbed.
“Want some help?” I asked my girlfriend.
“Yup, take the bag, don’t touch the Ungodly One.”
“Why not?”
“Way too creepy name for you not to destroy the whole universe just by holding it.”
I laughed, took the plastic bag, and followed Illy outside.
We took a little gravel road towards the back of her house. We passed next to a large vegetable garden and fruit trees, that were already blooming flowers, quite unnaturally for this early in the season.
“Magiiiic.” Marie had noticed the same thing I had.
We entered the house taking little stairs leading to a veranda, itself connected to a large kitchen. It was a rather stereotypically American inside the house, except there were vegetables and plants everywhere, and a large cat sleeping on the kitchen counter.
“Morpheus! Your manners!” Illy reprimanded him.
The cat looked at her with the characteristic look of disdain only cats had mastered.
“Shoo, shoo!” She continued.
The cat was black, with white only on his paws, making it seem like socks. It daigned to move, albeit slowly, and dropped to the ground.
“Hi, little one.” Said Marie kneeling towards him awkwardly with the plant in her hands.
Morpheus went to sniff her, but then looked at me with pure horror, hissed, and fled like a cruise missile upstairs.
“What got into him?” Illy asked out loud.
I was grinning wolfishly.
I stopped immediately as Marie was staring at me.
“Gray. You feel proud of yourself?”
“I didn’t do a thing.”
“Hm hm.”
“Better like that, anyway, he’s always begging for food when I cook, or tries to kill me by tripping me.” The now apron-wearing housewife said while washing her hands.
“He’s cute.” Marie said.
“It’s my daughter’s cat, so even though it is cute, you should be careful around it.” She said with a sad smile on her face.
“Do you need some help in the kitchen?”
Illy turned around almost angry. “No! You helped me way too much, and you are my guests. Please go wait in the living room, there are plenty of texts about magic, and you can put the plant on the table!” And just like she had with the cat, she shooed us away, driving us to the next room.
It was a living room and it was the definition of homely. Leather couches, a television up on the wall with a chimney beneath it. Beautiful tapestry on the ground giving the place a warm fuzzy feeling. It was rather messy, books, magazines, some forgotten clothes like a beanie and a scarf, and lots and lots of family pictures were scattered around.
As I checked the picture, I could guess they had a family of four, the son seemed older than Rose, and there was a picture of him with a medicine diploma in his hands.
“Gray, look!” Marie had put the plant on whatever space there was left on the little table and was showing me an encyclopedia about old creatures that should have been myths.
“Nice.” I looked at the books and magazines dropped a bit willy-nilly everywhere myself.
Witch magazines n°537, Margaret’s renowned compulsion resistance elixir.
Housewives, how to cook asparagus.
Scientific American, Habitat on Mars for 2050?
I even saw a book written in Latin, which had to be a spellbook, because, it was written in Latin?
“Hey Marie, look at what I found.” I showed it to her. “Magic book?” A smell coming from the top of the stairs in the next room informed me we were being spied on by a nosy teen.
My best friend giggled. “Nope, it’s obviously a Latin version of Antigone.”
“Anti…oh the Greek tragedy?”
“I’m surprised you know about it.”
“I don’t read much but I do know the classics. Why is it in Latin if it’s Greek?”
Rose decided to make her presence known, or that was what she believed.
“Mom tries to learn Latin.” She climbed down the stairs. They led to the house’s entrance, but there was no door separating it from the living room, so she just walked straight to us.
She dropped on the couch by jumping over it.
“Rose, was it?” Marie sat down on some type of comfy chair. I recognized the voice as professional Marie. She really couldn’t stop herself.
THAT IS WHY SHE IS LOVED BY CHAOS.
I wasn’t ready at all for the Beast’s intervention and was so startled I dropped the Greek tragedy on the ground.
I didn’t bother asking IT what it meant. And just picked up the book.
“Gray?”
“Hey, careful with that.” The teenager provocatively reprimanded.
“I’m fine, sorry.”
Marie gave me a look like she knew there was something more, but let it slide.
“So, Rose. How old are you?”
“Fourteen. You?”
Fourteen with piercings?
“Twenty-two.” Marie answered.
“And you just begin magic now? Good luck ever getting good, especially with my mom’s trash Gathering.”
PUPS SHOULD BE BROKEN ONCE OR TWICE.
Marie’s look in my direction told me I probably didn’t have a very reassuring expression on my face.
Fortunately, the teen was still talking to Marie, mocking her mother’s way of life.
I was afraid though that I would soon have to hunt something. Maybe if I went in the woods for a day or two, IT would be satisfied.
The low grumbling laughter inside my body wasn’t giving me much hope.
“…you want to get good? Use nature magic correctly. Look!” Rose was showing off a rune, written on the same type of paper we had used before. She put in under her clothes and extended her hand towards the Ungodly One.
“Wait, what are you…?” Marie tried to stop her.
The Ungodly One began wilting, if you could call it that, and I had the strange feeling of it…losing something.
It was dying, at an alarming speed.
Marie had not realized. I intervened, moving fast in front of her and my plant.
“Stop it CHILD.”
The sudden rumble of my voice surprised even me, not to talk about the teenager who jumped on her seat, completely unprepared for the speed of my movement.
“Wow what the fuck bitch?”
I winced.
“Anyway, look. Same thing my mother taught you, but two hundred times more effective. I can throw two or three fireballs with one plant.”
I remembered the lie Illy had told us before. Pieces of the puzzle were clearer. It seemed nature magic wasn’t as innocent as we originally thought.
Marie did not care about that for now and had gotten up to examine the Ungodly One. “Oh my god, my plant? What have you done!?” It wasn’t dead, but barely hanging on.
“Don’t worry, mom has plenty, she’ll give you another one.” Said the teen.
“That was my plant. Gray had chosen it for me!” Marie never lost her patience when she was in professional mode. It had taken Rose less than five minutes to break that rule.
“Oh, sorry. Is that your boyfriend?”
“It’s the girl in front of you.”
I was still towering her, but she was not understanding how close the Beast was from my skin.
It had no desire to kill, but to teach a lesson. I wasn’t sure it would change a thing.
“Oh, she can just pick another one for you then, no?”
I gave her a grin, she looked at me quizzically.
“Gray…” Marie began. I wasn’t sure if it was to stop me from eating the child, or to encourage me.
The sound of keys in the front door broke the tension in room.
“I’m home!”
“Daddy!” The teenager changed her tone completely, jumped over the couch, and went to hug what was obviously her father.
Henry, if I remembered his name correctly, was a tall, scrawny man, almost completely bald, with round glasses, a dark long jacket, and a rather spy-ish looking black mallet. He had to be in his fifties.
“Rosy, how are you? How was school?”
“Boring. Everyone is dumb.”
“That is simply not the case, you have to stop saying that.” Her father wasn’t saying that with much authority at all.
“But it’s true.” Rose turned around. “We have…guests.” As I saw her expression, I was quite shocked to realize that the cat's level of disdain had just been reached by a human.
“Oh yes! New members of the U, how exciting! My name is Henry Fenwood, but please, call me Henry.” He gave us a blinding smile and extended his arm towards me.
I shook his hand, and Marie stood up from her plant to shake it in turn.
“I’m Gray.”
“And I’m Marie.”
“How did you like your first delve into the magic world?” He asked us.
“Extraordinary.” Marie immediately answered. “I can’t wait to know more about it.”
“Maybe my wife didn’t tell you, but I am researching about it in my spare time, if you have any questions…”
“Oh, plenty! I can’t wait to see what someone from NASA could do to explain such a difficult concept!” Marie interrupted him.
He seemed a bit shy, suddenly. “Oh, It’s nothing big like that. I just code on my computer. I’m a little cog in a large picture.”
I watched him, then looked towards the kitchen where Illy was cooking dinner, then finally stared at the demon child.
There had to be real witchcraft at work here.
“What’cha looking at?” Rose taunted me.
I breathed deeply.
“Rose, speak respectfully, please.” Henry turned around to face her daughter.
“Dinner is ready in twenty minutes! My love? Is that you I hear?” Illy shouted from the kitchen.
“Yes, I’m sorry I’m late!” He went to kiss his wife in the kitchen, and with no words, through the opened door, I saw the tender expression he gave her.
Something took me by the throat, a powerful desire to take this precise instant and paint it.
My decision had been made; I would come here with my painting equipment.
The taxi ride would be hell. That was if the Fenwoods even said yes in the first place.
“Rose, go dress the table in the dining room.” Said her mother.
The teenager in front of me sighed with exaggerated exasperation. “Yeess…”
She left, and Henry came back, sitting in the comfy chair where Marie had sat before. The both of us took the couch.
“First of all, do you know the basics of physics? Energy, mass, rules surrounding the thermodynamics?”
Wait, that was the basics? I hadn’t been taught that in high school.
“Yup, but Gray is going to have a harder time with it. He…She read C.Clarke, so she has some concepts.”
“Oh, science-fiction is nice, you read a lot?”
“I’ve personally read every Asimov’s book there is, some of C.Clarke’s as well.”
Henry seemed pleased and bounced back on it.
“Well, in terms of science, Clarke is way better, but Asimov’s idea is actually how I began thinking about magic differently.”
“You mean that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?”
“Exactly. Oh, you’re a true fan.”
Marie scratched her head.
“You ok, Gray?”
“Yup, still following. I’ll call it quits when you’re talking about quarks.”
Henry gave me an apologetic look. “Well, if I wanted to be precise, I would need to talk about quantum particles, but I’ll try to simplify.”
“Thanks.” I said honestly.
“So, you know that magic comes in two facets. Inner magic, that is an absolute constant, except when you die, and outside magic, created through actions, and similar to that of any normal fuel, except it’s invisible and undetectable. Or, well, very difficult to detect.”
“Still following.” I added.
“Shh.” Marie gave me a look.
I sighed.
“So, basically, this magic is not part of this world.”
“Something like a parallel world?” Marie asked.
“No, no. Even though Multiverses are a very serious theory, it wouldn’t be another world, per se. It’s just outside of our four dimensions.”
“Wait, four?” I asked.
“The fourth is time.” Marie said with her eyes raised in the sky.
“Hey! How am I supposed to know?”
“Everyone knows that.” I saw the expression in her eyes, she was teasing me. I put my hand on her thigh and growled quietly.
She said and did nothing, but her cheeks took a pinkish color I liked very much.
“Yes, even though it is a rather incorrect way of portraying dimensions. You could as well say the fourth dimension is mass. Or speed.” Henry continued, unaware of the silent exchange between me and my girlfriend. “In any case, and that’s where I’ll have to talk about quantum particles, magic is linked with something that exists outside of the human perception. Or human instruments.”
“Wait, like dark energy?” Marie’s eyes shimmered in excitement.
She had this look for things other than magic? I cursed. I would soon become a full-time babysitter.
“Exactly. Magic would be this dark energy. And the fact that it can become a constant explains why the universe doesn’t stop expanding. Magic is created through action; the act of the expanding universe would continually fuel more magic into continuing the expansion.”
“Wait. Wait. I’m lost.” I admitted.
“Sorry Gray, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m mixing two theories here instead of explaining clearly. So, if inner magic and outer magic are the same, inner magic should also be created by action, but then it shouldn’t be constant. As magic only exists in living beings, an explanation would be that the nervous system, constantly active, is the thing that creates this event.”
“Which would explain why taking too much outer magic fries your brain.” Marie added.
“Exactly. Though it suffers one fatal flaw.”
“When we use magic, it doesn’t light up in the brain.” I intervened.
He looked at me silently for a few seconds. “Well, I’ll be damned: two flaws. The one I was thinking about is that, if you use too much magic, you should still be able to deplete the magic created by your nervous system, even for a few instants. But it’s always perfectly constant.”
“So those two types of magic are not exactly the same then?”
“Yes. And the next theory…well, it’s farfetched. I would need a whole team to study it, but only three members of the NASA know about the U, and we don’t have access to the right equipment. I sent my idea to a witch working at the CERN, but she’s having a hard time persuading the scientists there to test the idea, as she cannot tell them why.”
“The CERN?” I asked.
“I don’t know either.” Marie confessed.
“It’s the scientific research lab with the largest hadron collider in the world, in Europe.”
“Oh! I’m dumb I knew that…” Marie said out loud.
“No, no. It is normal you forgot, they are pretty quiet because some of the public believes they’ll create a black hole and destroy the earth.” He said with slight desperation in his voice.
“Wait? Is that possible?” I asked, nonetheless.
“It’s almost impossible.” Henry answered.
“Almost?” Marie and I exclaimed loudly.
Henry laughed quietly, which clearly informed us we had been had.
“There is no danger. In any case, that second theory is what I believe is the closest to the truth, at least right now.”
“What is it, then?” Marie pulled for more.
“You have to understand, it is far from being proven.”
“It sounds way too interesting for you not to tell us, now.” I interjected.
He laughed, then continued talking. “Yes. Basically, inner magic is dark energy linked to a quantum particle that is unalterable.”
Really, I thought I was smart, but I had understood nothing. Unalterable, ok: that cannot change. But I had expressively asked to avoid the quantum particle part.
Marie didn’t seem to fare better. “What?”
“I’m sorry, it is complicated, even though I am already oversimplifying. We found out that some particles are linked with others. If one moves, the other moves. It doesn’t matter how far away they are from one another; the effect is instantaneous. This specific particle would be one linked with dark energy, only found in living things. It would also have a strange law, that would make it unalterable. As such, the linked dark energy, or inner magic particles, wouldn’t be allowed to change either.”
There was a long silence.
“Wait… Wouldn’t that basically be the soul?” Marie asked.
“Oh. Well. I don’t really like talking about religion, but as it only exists in living things, you could call it that, I guess. I would rather say it’s the spark of life, something like that, and even then, that’s completely unscientific.”
I saw the gears inside Marie’s brain running wild.
“You realize you could be answering the question of the origin of life?”
Henry gave a timid smile. “No, not at all. If my theory is correct, it still wouldn’t answer how those particles came to be. They are far from following the order of the world. It goes completely against the laws of thermodynamics, for example.”
“Dinner is ready!” Said Illy, stopping our conversation in its tracks.
Which was probably for the better, because Marie seemed to need the time to digest the information.
I needed to understand most of it first, but I was sure Marie would help me out.
Probably by giving me books to read but, I didn’t dislike science-fiction, so it would be okay.
Right now, my nostrils were quivering in pleasure over the sweet smell of steak.