Chapter 17 Melodia

Mom and Dad had called Arturo on the way home. They were going to be home a little later than they expected. Looked like the two of us had the whole house to ourselves for a little bit longer. Which meant there was no excuse I could use to avoid telling my brother everything.

"So… what was that?" He asked as he sat at the dining room table. He had this weird, distant look in his eyes, like his brain was still trying to process the impossible things he'd seen. I sat on the other end with Pickati standing on top of the table by my side.

"A little more specific? You saw a whole lot of crazy stuff just now," I switched to English for Pickati's sake. Boy, did I not want to be here right now. The last thing I needed was to have Arturo tell Mom and Dad everything. Right now my goal had to be to convince him not to do that. "Just for the record, I have no idea what was up with the convenience store."

"Okay then, I guess you can start by explaining what that monster thing was. The one you fought," well that was an easy one. Plus the distant look was starting to fade.

"That was a doll," I made sure to keep an eye on Pickati in case he wanted to join or get me to stop. "They're these monsters that show up from time to time and cause trouble. If I didn't destroy them, they'd wreck everything."

"And how do you destroy them, with those weird superpowers you were using? And why are you speaking in English?" I reached over to the counter behind me to grab a bottle of water. I cast a quick spell on it before leaving it floating in the middle of the air.

"Well that depends, do you count magic as super powers?" I let out a nervous laugh, as Arturo started reaching out to catch the bottle. Once he noticed it was staying up in the air by itself, he sat back and stared at it. He took a moment to recover before leaning forward and poking it. The bottle floated towards me, so I held my hand up to stop it from going past me.

"That's real," he muttered, "that's real magic. I spent the whole trip here bracing myself for the impossible, and it's still blowing my mind."

"You're accepting this quicker than most," Pickati chuckled, catching his eye, "but I suppose seeing everything you have would help with that."

"Oh that's weird," Arturo rubbed his eyes before looking back at Pickati, "something that small should not have a voice that deep."

"And yet I do," he smirked, "your sister said much the same when we first met." I silently thanked him for not bringing up the fact he'd been bleeding all over the floor at the time.

"And who are you?" Arturo asked as he leaned forward into him. If he was trying to be intimidating, it wasn't working. Pickati looked completely unfazed even as he got close enough for me to get anxious for him. "Other than the weird voice I keep hearing around Melodia?"

"My name is Pickati, holder of the power of the stars, and Melodia's magic teacher," he did a quick bow, "it's nice to finally meet you face to face like this."

The rest of it came quickly. We pretty much told him everything. About the spirit of destruction, about the seal, how I had chosen to keep the powers to fight the dolls. His expression hardened more and more the longer he heard us talking. The worst of it was when I mentioned how my powers seemed to heal up my injuries faster than normal.

"Melodia," he said softly after we finished telling him all the important parts. My eyes widened at his tone. Arturo's voice only got that soft when he was extremely angry. And by angry I meant 'ready to punch something until it stopped moving' angry. "I need to speak to Pickati alone for a moment."

"Um… I'm not sure that's a good idea," honestly it sounded like a terrible idea. I had no idea how powerful Pickati's magic was, but I had a feeling that if I left, I was either going to lose either a brother or a magic teacher. And I was not in the mood to lose either of them.

"It'll be fine Melodia," he reassured me as I grabbed my bag and slowly got out of my chair.

"Okay then, I'll go take this up to my room," I told them as I left the room… and then immediately stood at the entrance of the dining room to listen in on their conversation. If something happened and I needed to step in, I'd be here to do something about it. And if the two of them thought they'd be able to talk about me behind my back, they were dead wrong.

"So I suppose you have some questions not fit for your sister's ears," I could hear the little grin on Pickati's face from all the way over here.

"You bet I do," Arturo started out quietly, gaining volume as he went on. "The first one is pretty simple. Who do you think you are recruiting my sister to fight in your war?"

There was a weird pause in the air before Pickati gave him his answer.

"Do you think I enjoy having a child fight my battles?" Pickati spat in disgust as my eyebrows shot up. Is that really what he thought of me? "You don't think every time I see her fighting the dolls, that I don't wish I could take her place? I don't have a choice in the matter. My role was to hold the power and give it to someone worthy. I am unable to use it myself, no matter how much I want to."

Arturo let out a breath and when I heard him talk, he was way calmer.

"So then why my sister in particular. Why her? You had an entire city of people out there, why not get any of them to do it?"

"Because she was the best choice," Pickati sounded almost defeated, "the power of the stars needed a host with their own magic in order to work properly. Humans lose their magic if they go too long without awakening it. Children Melodia's age are as old as we can go before their magic starts to fade."

"So it was either use kids or find an adult magic user? And since I don't see any old wizards with gray beards and pointy hats walking around, can I assume that's not an option?"

"I don't know to be honest. Magi used to be much more common in the old days, and I have no idea why they're so hard to find these days. My best bet is they all went underground. And even if they didn't, it still wouldn't be an option. Most magi would take one look at me and start taking out the dissection kits. They'd be too busy taking me apart to see how I work to hear me out about the doll and the spirit of destruction."

Well that was worrying. He'd had never mentioned the option of reaching out to other magic users. Of course if the whole dissection thing was true, then I could see why. I wondered if those magi would try to do the same to me before shaking the though from my head. Best not to think about it.

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"Okay I guess that's fair," Arturo sighed, "so it's just her? One little girl fighting to protect the world all by herself?"

I fought back a groan. I already knew exactly where this conversation was going, and I already hated it.

"Well technically she's not alone," Pickati chuckled nervously. "There were three other holders, and each of them has already found someone to use the powers. In the best case scenario, Melodia would be working with the other three girls to fight the dolls together."

"But since my sister doesn't have the best time working with other people, is it safe to assume we're no way near the best case scenario?" Arturo, why did you have to think that? Was it really so hard to have a little faith in me?

"I have to say, when I chose her for this, I didn't see these issues coming," oh great, now Pickati was joining in on this. "I would rather intervene directly to get them all on the same side, but Melodia's said that if it'll happen, it'll be on her own terms."

"Melodia claiming she can fix her troubles on her own but never actually getting around to it. Where have I heard that story before?"

"Oh, so it's a known issue then," I felt my eye twitch. I swear any more out of those two and I would be giving them a piece of my mind.

"Oh yeah, she always thinks she has to take care of her problems on her own, even when she can't."

"I can too," I ran back into the room and glared at the two of them. "I already told you guys, I'll figure out this whole thing with Anna and then it'll be fine."

"Didn't you tell me yesterday you burnt those bridges beyond all repair?" Pickati pointed out.

"Well… I… I can always… You know what? I don't have to take this. I will not be made fun of in my own house. I'm going up to my room. For real this time," I grabbed my bag and marched up the stairs. The last thing I heard before I closed the door behind me was Pickati telling Arturo something about magic.

I walked over to my bed, hanging my bag over my chair and grabbing my spell book from the desk on the way. I laid down on my back with the book held out above me. I always liked taking the book and reading through it from the beginning. Seeing all the spells I had already learned made me feel like a real magi.

Which, I guess I was. To be honest I still had trouble wrapping my head around that part. When I thought of the word 'magi' I thought of an old dude carrying a big magical staff in robes, not plain old me.

But I was, and all these spells written in my book were proof of that. I read through the whole book pretty quick, getting to the latest spell in here without too much trouble. Maybe next time I did this, I could cast the spells as I got to them to really make the whole thing sink in.

But as interesting an idea it was, I had something else to worry about at the moment. The last spell in my book at the moment was one I was still working on. Pickati had told me this spell would be vital for my development as a gravity mage, but it had left me stumped.

I knew how to make objects float, I could make an area heavy, I could make myself heavier or lighter, and I could change gravity's direction by inverting it. Now on these pages in front of me was the next step. I narrowed my eyes and carefully read through the entry, taking time to carefully read every word.

Omnidirectional Movement, or just plain gravity shifting if I didn't feel like pronouncing the hard version, was a tricky spell[*]. The explanation of what it did plus the concepts it needed made up the first third of the entry. The rest of it was a bunch of problems and difficulties I was going to have casting the spell.

I read through the list of tricky parts one more time before getting to my feet and standing in front of a bare wall I had set up to practice this spell. I had needed to pull down a bunch of my posters, but Mom had believed me when I told her I was redecorating.

She had even given me a hand in taking down everything from my walls. I had felt a little guilty over letting her help me when I was lying about what it was for. Maybe I'd feel less guilty if I actually redecorated after mastering the spell?

You know what? I could think about that stuff after I had the spell down. I reached into my flame and took a small portion of my magic. At least the spell only affected myself and had the cost to reflect that. If I had to try a bigger spell over and over again, I'd lose my mind waiting to recover between casts. I quickly cast Internal Stabilization on myself so I wouldn't make myself hurl before running through the concepts.

[Gravity.

Outer self.

Standard gravity.

Direction in front of me.]

I gulped as gravity started tiling forward. I took a step forward and put my foot on the wall as gravity kept moving until I was standing right on the wall. For a split second I thought I had it down, and then the gravity kept going. I had to start walking forward in order to make sure I didn't fall.

"Not this again," I complained while on the ceiling. I made it back to the floor before dropping the spell. This kept happening every time I used the spell. I had tried asking Pickati about it, but apparently figuring out the trick was the important part. Just telling me the answer defeated the point of the whole thing.

I tried the spell a few more times, messing with different versions of the last concept each time. Every single one of them failed the same way, I ended up walking all along the wall without being able to stop. I decided to give it one last try.

The good news was that I hadn't failed the same way I always had. The bad news was that I had found a new way instead. After casting the spell I started spinning forward in the air. It was kind of fun at first, the stability spell I cast on myself before I started kept me from getting dizzy. But after a few spins, I realized I had a new problem.

I was spinning faster and faster with each spin, and now I couldn't stop. If I tried to drop the spell, I'd probably end up falling flat on my face. I had one other choice, but I was pretty sure I was going to hate it.

"Pickati, Arturo!" I yelled as loudly as I could, hoping it would be enough for them to hear me. As I waited for the two of them to show up, I wondered what the two had even been doing while I had been practicing.