“I’m supposed to invite you to dinner,” Mal said at the end of his second training session with Tian. He did not complete the baseline exercises this time either, but he did get one exercise farther into them. It was worse than the first day, not in terms of sweat, but in pain. His muscles were still aching and sore from their previous session and using them again at such high intensity was not fun. It wasn’t so bad after he loosened up some, but it still wasn’t good.
“We are supposed to go to my place so you can tutor my brother,” Tian said as she walked Mal through the cooldown stretches that they hadn’t done two days ago. Maybe that was why he was so sore now.
“I know.” Mal quickly looked away from Tian as she glanced in his direction. She was too pretty. “I told her about the tutoring. She said next time.”
“I can do that.” Tian said, “As long as I can use your shower before dinner.”
“Of course.” It was a meal, they almost expected her to shower. “You’re sure it’s okay that I use yours?”
“We don’t expect you to tutor Wern covered in sweat.” Tian waved his concern away. Tian bit her lip. “You can do magic, right? My mom is going to test you, I know it.”
“You don’t believe me?” Mal tried to ignore how that made him feel, but he was pretty sure that Tian could tell, because she looked horrified a second later.
“NO! Yes, of course I do,” Tain was pale, her hands shooting over her mouth, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just I’ve never seen you weave anything and we are always in public so we don’t do intrinsic magic at all, and my parents are so demanding sometimes and I told them about how you were going to Canada and how you got a call from one of the professors after you applied and my dad said you were just saying that to impress me and to be careful around good looking boys because they’ll say anything to get closer to you and-”
“Would you like to see some?” Mal said. The dark pit didn’t form like it usually did when the topic came up, which was nice, though odd. Maybe because he could do magic now. Maybe because he could tell Tian wasn’t lying when she said she believed him.
“You’ll show me?” Tian instantly forgot her rant, moving up beside Mal so she wouldn’t miss anything. “You don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind,” Mal said, “Magic is the only cool thing about me. I want to do it all the time.”
Tian laughed, though Mal was not joking. He did want to do it all the time and it definitely was the only cool thing about him.
“I’ll show you the first spell weave I ever came up with,” Mal said, “It was supposed to make things sticky, but it was a failure. It actually fuses things together.”
“You made a new spell?” Tian said, “That’s so cool.”
Mal felt himself blush at her attention, her big blue eyes were locked onto him like he was some sort of hero. “It’s not that a big deal,” Mal said, looking down at his hands, “Everyone invents their own spells once they can do magic well. Magic is very versatile, so everyone has things they like to use it for.”
“But you’ve only been doing magic for a week!” Tian said, “And you’ve already invented a spell.”
“I actually invented this one when I was twelve,” Mal said, picking at the grass with his hands. “Just a few days after my birthday.”
Tian’s mouth popped open.
“I didn’t weave it, obviously. You already know I couldn’t touch magic before I integrated with the Spell. But my mom did. She accidentally fused a piece of paper with our kitchen table.”
“No! Did she get it out?”
“She pretended she couldn’t,” Mal said, “But she could and decided to leave it there.”
“She left it in her kitchen?” Tian was more shocked by that than by anything Mal said so far.
“I think she was proud of me,” Mal flushed again.
“So it is a big deal.”
“Everyone invents a spell once they can weave well.”
“But you did that before you could even weave.”
Mal scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “I think it’s less common.”
“You think?” Tian shook her head, sending her thick gray hair cascading in little waves. “I want to see two things fused together please.”
Mal looked around the field they were in. There wasn’t anything good to stick together. “Sit down across from me.” Mal said. He stuck his leg out from where he was sitting on the ground. “Put your shoe against mine.” Mal concentrated for a moment and wove the spell onto his foot. Tian sat across from him and pressed her shoe against his. Mal felt the weave take hold, fusing their shoes together.
“Hey! We’re stuck together.” Tian grinned like a kid receiving a present as she tried to move her foot. She leaned forward, displaying impressive flexibility as she attempted to see the fusion more clearly. “Can you get them apart?”
“The first spell I ever wove for real was to undo this spell,” Mal said. He wove the spell, feeling the magic flow through him and form in the air in front of him, placing it on their joined shoes. Their soles fell apart as if they had never been connected at all. “The spell to undo that is actually much harder than the one to fuse them in the first place.”
Tian frowned at their now separate feet. “You didn’t move your hands.”
“It’s not required,” Mal said, “Hands are kind of like a training thing. They help you visualize the flow of magic. For really complex stuff I still use my hands and move them through the forms, but for this kind of thing I don’t need to.”
“My parents always use their hands. You’re going to pass my mother’s test, no problem.” Tian grinned, “We should be paying you more than three hundred per hour.”
“I told you that was more than I was asking for.”
“And I told you that’s what you’re worth. At least.” Tian stood up, crossing her arms, “You can try to get my parents to pay you less, but once they realize what you can do they will want to pay you even more.”
Mal stood up as well, picking up his bag and following Tian as they started their way back to her car. “I’m going to tell them my real rate, no matter what you say.”
“You need the money. Do you even have any other clients?” Tian said.
“I do,” Mal said, looking past Tian at the sky. It was another bright and sunny afternoon. “I did my first tutoring session yesterday. Thank you for the idea, by the way.”
“You have another client already?” Tian squinted her eyes at Mal, “Are you lying.”
“No. His name is João.”
“You aren’t looking at me when you’re talking to me, you’re hiding something.”
“I’m tutoring him for free,” Mal admitted.
“Why?” Tian seemed genuinely confused.
“He needs it,” Mal said. It was right. “He’s a prodigy and he doesn’t even realize it. He wants to be an aug athlete like Luca Carvalho. He won’t be, though. He’ll be better. But his mom can’t afford the tutoring.”
“You shouldn’t believe whatever people say, Mal,” Tian said, “People are happy to trick a nice guy like you.”
“I can tell when people are lying,” Mal said stubbornly, “Every time. And Luciana was lying when she told me she can afford it. Besides, I can just find another rich family and make up the hours there. I’m only with João two hours every week.”
“You can tell when people are lying? No offense Mal, but you don’t exactly strike me as a people person.”
“Her fridge was empty. Four people in the house with three kids and her fridge was empty, Tian. It wasn’t right. It’s not solush.”
“It was empty?” Tian looked just as horrified as he had felt.
“There was a single pitcher of water in it,” Mal said.
“That’s somehow worse.” Tian’s face was full of guilt, “Please tell me you did something.”
“Of course. I may be only half-Eten, but it’s the right half. I bought the family pizza, two big ones, and I told Luciana the tutoring was free, and I told her to send João to my house for tutoring every Wednesday. Mom’s going to send him home with so many leftovers every time he comes that he won’t be able to walk.”
“Good.” Tian said, though she still looked guilty, “I’m sorry I doubted you. But you still shouldn’t believe everything other people say. You’re so sweet, Mal, people will take advantage.”
Mal shook his head. “I wasn’t bragging. I really can. Mom doesn’t like me telling people, because it’s really rare, but I can tell every time.”
“You really can?” Tian gasped, and flushed deeply, her face turning almost the color of mud. “Even over text?”
“No.” Mal paused where he was in the middle of the sidewalk, causing a few people to grumpily bump into him and shuffle around, “Sorry.” He rushed to catch up with Tian. “Did you lie to me over text?”
Tian glanced at him, her face still fully flushed. She looked panicked. “No?”
“That was a lie!” Mal said, a ball of anxiety forming in his stomach. “Did you think phrasing it as a question would trick me?”
“No!” Another lie. “It wasn’t anything bad, I swear!” That was the truth at least. The ball receded slightly.
“What was it then?”
“No! It’s too embarrassing!” That was the truth. Mal took out his phone trying to find what she had said that was so embarrassing. He couldn’t find anything. “Don’t try to guess what it is!” Tian tried to grab the phone from his hands. She was a lot faster and stronger than him, so she did so easily.
“Did you use a direct expression to take that from me?” Mal said, not trying to get his phone back as Tian deleted messages on his phone.
She handed his phone back and brightened instantly, “I did! It was really precise too! I didn’t want to hurt you or break your phone and I’ve had a hard time with control. Coach Hamm would be really proud of me.”
“He would be proud of you stealing my phone to delete texts?” Mal looked through his phone. She had deleted the first two messages she sent him and that was it. She had also texted herself and told herself that she was cute.
“Maybe not,” Tian admitted, “But he would be happy with the action itself.” Tian and Mal approached the parking garage where Tian kept her car, entering it and continuing their conversation. Mal shut his door and Tian drove them away. Mal never realized he had a full conversation with a very pretty girl and had not even felt awkward once.
----------------------------------------
Tian pulled up to a towering building in downtown LA. The afternoon sun was still shining down on the city, and the apartment building gleamed in its light. Tian waited at the entrance to the building’s parking garage as people passed in front of the entrance.
“Sorry,” Tian said, “It’s always super busy at this time of day. People are getting off work.”
Mal was too busy craning his neck to care. “You live here? Your apartment must be really nice.”
“My dad is technically a bureaucrat that works at the Canadian Embassy, but really he’s the Eten ambassador,” Tian said, “But since Etenia-” she grimaced at the word, as did Mal, “-isn’t a country, we don’t really get an ambassador. But Canada bought this nice apartment for us anyway and my dad gets paid really well. Not as well as my mom though. She’s a model.”
“Cool,” Mal was still staring up at the building when Tian pulled into the underground parking garage. Even it was fancy. An attendant slash guard waved her through without Tian presenting anything to him, so he must have recognized her on sight. Or been bad at his job. There probably weren’t that many teenage Eten girls driving two door coupes through, though.
The walls were painted with a bright mural of what Carbon Beach used to look like and was somehow clean, despite the number of cars that must drive past every day. Tian parked in a stall that had a fancy power outlet in it. All the stalls had outlets, actually. When Mal left the car, he found that the garage was heated.
Tian plugged in her car to the outlet, noticing Mal waving his hand through the air as he noticed the heat. “In the summer, it’s air conditioned.”
“Seems excessive.” Mal said. He turned back to the car and grabbed his backpack, following Tian as she walked toward a pair of doors which led to a pair of elevators.
“I know, right? Like we couldn’t walk twenty feet from the building to our cars without air conditioning.” She rolled her eyes.
An elevator dinged open before Tian had the chance to press the button to call it, revealing an elevator operator waiting inside. “Going back home Miss Elutran?” The man said. He was an older man, and was resting on a stool inside the elevator, his uniform was rumpled but in otherwise pristine condition.
“Yes, please. Thank you, Herm.” Tian gave the man a bright smile. Mal nodded to him.
They entered the elevator and Herm pressed the button to the thirty-fifth floor, a little over halfway to the top. It seemed entirely unnecessary to Mal; having someone press the buttons for you. How hard was it to press a button? Maybe there was something special about them. Or maybe people just liked to feel important enough to have a man press the elevator buttons for them.
A second later the elevator dinged again and they were on the thirty-fifth floor. When had they started moving? Probably right after Herm pressed the button, but Mal didn’t feel a thing.
“Magic elevators,” Tian said, answering Mal’s unspoken question. “Technology and magic don’t always work well together, but when they do, you notice.” She grinned. Mal smiled back, though he was unsure why they were smiling.
Tian left the elevator and Mal followed, walking with her all the way to the end of a long hall to a door at the very back of it. It wasn’t marked with a name or a number. Tian pulled out what Mal recognized as a high security key and stuck it in the lock. She didn’t turn it, but held it in the lock for a moment without moving. A second later, a light flashed green in a spot right about the lock and the door clicked open.
“Is the lock magic too?” Mal said.
“I’m not sure. I just know the key reads my thumbprint and it won’t open the door for anyone but me.”
“Fancy,” Mal said. He was going to ask if he could examine the key to see if he could tell if it was magic, but the words died in his throat as Tian opened the apartment door.
The apartment was huge. If it were not for the floor to ceiling windows that ran along the right side of the room, showing off a dazzling view of the city, Mal would have forgotten they were in an apartment at all. The apartment opened directly into a lounge area. It was sunken and a long, white leather couch ran along the wall created by the height difference. The couch faced the large window and a low glass table sat in front of it. In the corner there was a small fireplace, framed by a tasteful set of modern brickwork.
A big glossy picture of Tian and a boy Mal assumed was her brother was framed above it. Tian was probably five in the photo, making her brother just a baby. He had the same light brown skin and dark blue eyes as Tian.
On the other side of the room was a large dining area which led into a kitchen. Mal couldn’t see much of the kitchen from where he stood, but what he could see was immaculate, as was expected from an Eten kitchen. The space in between was all dark hardwood flooring
Tian kicked off her shoes into a messy pile in a corner by the entrance. Mal took his own shoes off and put them into a much neater pile beside a pair of clean, white trainers. Tian shouted in the Eten language, “I’m home! I brought Mal!”
Nobody called back, but a stunning Eten woman appeared from the kitchen. She heavily resembled Tian, but stood a few inches taller and looked a few years older. Her gray hair was thick and dark, rolling over her shoulder in a cascading wave. Her eyes were lighter blue than Tian’s and her skin a shade darker, but she had the same full, pouty lips, wide eyes and heart shaped face. She wore a single-shouldered sweater that matched her hair and a pair of beige pants that looked like they had been made specifically for her.
And Mal recognized her.
He had seen her on billboards and magazine covers, often wearing much more revealing clothes and advertising for something ridiculous like lipstick or shoes. What did a woman in lingerie have to do with lipstick? Mal didn’t know her name, but he knew she was at least a little bit famous.
She gave her daughter a brilliant smile and a welcoming hug while Mal stood awkwardly in the doorway, still wearing his sweaty workout clothes and holding his old backpack.
“Welcome home, and on time today!” Tian’s mother turned her stunning smile to Mal, who felt himself beginning to blush at the attention. She released her daughter from her hug and approached Mal. “I am Retynia Elutran.” She held out her hand to shake.
“I am Malenthiar Thomas.” Mal said, “Please call me Mal.”
“So polite, no wonder you are the first boy my daughter has brought home.” Retynia smiled as Mal felt his face practically glow red. He turned away, unable to meet her gaze.
Tian grabbed her mother’s arm and pulled her away from Mal, “Mom stop!” She marched Retynia a few feet away and whispered to her so that Mal wouldn’t hear. Unfortunately for Tian, Mal had very good ears. “You can’t tease Mal like that. He’s really shy around new people and you’re going to scare him off!”
“So you really are bringing him home?”
“No. Shut up! He won’t be able to teach Wern if you keep saying stuff like that.” A small shower of pink stars dropped from Tian’s clenched hands and danced on the floor for a moment before dissolving into little puffs of light.
Retynia patted her daughter’s arm, “Don’t worry, dear. I won’t scare off your little boyfriend.”
“Mom!”
Retynia turned around, again gracing Mal with her smile. “Why don’t you come in and get cleaned up, Mal? It can’t be comfortable to stand around in those clothes.”
“Thanks,” Mal said.
“I’ll show you to the guest bathroom then,” Retynia said, beckoning with her finger for Mal to follow. “Tian, perhaps you’d like to make your guest something to eat?”
“Sure,” Tian’s voice was slightly high-pitched and she was still a bit flushed from her talk with her mom. “He can use my shower, though. You know how bad the guest bathroom is.”
Retynia raised her eyebrows, clearly wanting to comment on the request, but restrained herself. “Very well. Mal, this way.”
Mal followed a few steps behind and she led him through the apartment. They passed through the kitchen, moving into a series of halls. The walls were painted a welcoming shade of cream and every few steps there was a picture of the family or one of the family members.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying so, Mal, but your skin is a beautiful shade of red.” Retynia said, after they walked a few steps past the kitchen.
“Uh. Thank you. I got it for my birthday.” Mal said. Retynia chuckled at his joke, even with its awkward delivery. “My sister has the same color as me, too. My mom thinks it is probably because of my dad.”
“Oh, is he from the Tyr family?”
“Uh, no.” Mal rubbed his hands together, “He’s human.”
“Oh my, I assumed because of your color and how well you speak the language that both your parents were Eten. Do you know if all half-Eten children have such brilliant clarity?”
Mal decided not to point out that he was pretty sure the clarity thing was completely made up. “My sister is slightly lower than I am, but I haven’t met any other half-Etens. Most are in Canada, according to my dad.”
“You’re visiting soon though, my daughter tells me.”
“Yes. I was invited to take the Institute’s assessment test about a week ago.”
“And my daughter says you’re something of a mage.”
This was the test. But Retynia didn’t say it was a test. Was it more polite to pretend you didn’t know what was going on in situations like this? Mal didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to say anything. That would almost be a confrontation and he did not want one of those.
Retynia had stopped in the middle of the hall. Mal stopped too. “I can weave pretty well, I guess.” Mal said, “Would you like me to show you something? I know it must be hard to find Wern a tutor who can actually weave.” That was good, right? It didn’t sound like he was accusing her of anything at the very least.
“You don’t mind?” Retynia gave him an apologetic smile.
“It’s fine. Do you have a specific request? I’ll tell you if it’s too hard for me.” That should cover him for any spells that required a lot of energy.
“Actually, yes,” Retynia’s apologetic smile brightened, “I need to make an appointment to dye my hair walnut brown for an upcoming shoot. That’s a dark brown, with some lighter highlights, but not that much lighter. Can you do that or is that too much for you?” The question at the end could be interpreted as snide, but it sounded like it was genuine concern that it might be too hard for him. Luckily, what she asked for was complicated, not at all energy intensive. Mal was almost done weaving the spell before she even asked the question.
“Done.” Mal said. He let the spell wash over her, careful to control his intent and only target the hair on her head. “It should be permanent, but I can undo it at any time if you’d like.”
“It’s okay if- Done?” Retynia blinked, her face a picture of surprise. She took a handful of her long hair from her shoulder, holding in her hand under the hallway lights.
Ah. So he wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. Or at least she didn’t expect him to be able to do so. That meant she knew at least a little bit about magic herself.
“If you want to change the color a bit, I still can,” Mal mumbled, “I’m still holding onto the weave.”
“I think we might not be paying you enough, Malenthiar Thomas.” Retynia looked up from her hair, a disbelieving expression on her face. “Did Professor Pewter really invite you to the school personally?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yes,” Mal managed not to stutter, but still blushed, “He called right after I submitted my application.”
“Outstanding.” Retynia gave him a new smile. It was not as brilliant as when she first greeted him, but it was welcoming and felt more real, like there was something behind it there hadn’t been before. “I’m sorry for the little test, but both Tan and I wanted to be sure. We should probably get you in the shower now, though, otherwise you’ll never meet Wernit.”
“Actually before you go, about my pay-”
“Do not worry, Mal, we are definitely increasing it. How does five hundred dollars per hour sound?”
“Um no, I mean it’s too much,” Five hundred dollars? Was she crazy? “I’m only charging one hundred and fifty per hour to my other clients.”
“Why?” Retynia stopped again in the hall, this time in surprise. She turned to face him again. “You’re worth at least three times that.”
“I have no experience or certifications or anything,” Mal said. “If I charged that much, no one would hire me.”
“Well, we are paying you what you are worth,” Retynia said in a tone that indicated this was the end of the discussion. “And I’m going to ask some friends if they have children who wish to learn as well. We Etens need to look out for each other.”
Mal wasn’t going to argue with more money, or the sentiment behind it. “Thanks. I only have a little bit of time each week though.”
“Then I will make sure they know it is first come, first serve.” Retynia said. “That’s Kottianny’s room right there,” She pointed to a door ahead of them, “The washroom is in the back.”
“Thanks,” Mal said again. “I appreciate it.”
“Thank you, Mal. Wernit is going to be thrilled to have a tutor that can actually teach him magic.” She gave him another beautiful smile and left him in the hall.
Mal walked into Tian’s room, surprised to find it was akin to João’s. The posters were mostly of Team Canada, with a focus on the female Eten members of their combat team, including the famous ex-Hunter Zala. There were a few others, of various fighters in various tournaments, but the focus was on one combatant he recognized but didn’t know the name of. Her room was also not as liberally decorated as João’s, with posters mostly on her ceiling over her bed. The room was painted a light blue that reminded Mal of Retynia’s eyes and he saw a small set of weights in the corner by her bed. A dresser stood across from the bed, large and covered in photos of Tian with various people. Mal even saw one that had Rudy in it. At the back of her room, to the left of her bed was a door. Mal opened it, revealing the bathroom.
The bathroom was relatively small, but clean and tidy, with a small counter separating the shower from the toilet. Mal took his change of clothes from his bag, laying them out so the steam of the shower would help smooth out any wrinkles.
The shower itself was simple enough, but made Mal feel uncomfortable in the way that all strange showers tend to do. He wiggled the handle between temperatures, eventually settling for a quick, lukewarm shower as he was unable to find the right setting for the temperature he liked.
A few minutes later he was back in the kitchen, now wearing clean clothes and no longer smelling of body odor. He was wearing a dark shirt and jeans, both picked out by his mother. He didn’t ask her to, but she coincidentally placed the clean clothes on his bed before he left for his training with Tian and he wasn’t going to miss such an obvious hint.
Mal entered the kitchen to find a new face greeting him. Wern looked around six or seven years old, meaning that Mal’s guess at Tian’s age in the photo he saw in their lounge was probably incorrect. He had a mop of unruly light gray hair, dark blue eyes, and nice light brown skin that reminded Mal of perfectly cooked toast.
Tian noticed him first and gave him a welcoming smile. She was still blushing for some reason. Her mother had probably been teasing her again. Mal found himself mirroring her blush at the thought of it and silently cursed himself. He was going to make a horrible first impression on Wern.
Retynia noticed her daughter’s smile and turned to face him from where she sat at a big island counter in the kitchen.
“Mal, come get something to eat,” Retynia said. “Tian made some quick snacks for us.”
“Thank you.” Mal joined them at the island counter. There was a plate of celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins spread out on a plate. Wern was happily munching on them, watching Mal with big blue eyes.
“And a protein shake for you.” Tian leaned across the table to hand him a tall glass filled with a thick purple liquid. She had changed while he was in the shower. Did she do that in her room while he was on the other side of the door, naked? The thought almost caused him to drop the glass.
“Careful with that,” Retynia said.
“Sorry. T-Thanks, Tian.” He took a big gulp from the smoothie before he could do anything else stupid. “This is good.” He tried not to sound too surprised. His only other experience with a protein shake didn’t go well.
“I used frozen blueberries and raspberries for flavor.” Tian said. “They help a lot to get past the chalky protein powder.”
“I like it.” Mal smiled, “Much better than that avocado limeade one.”
Tian giggled, “Anything would be better than that.”
“Mal, this is Wernit,” Retynia said, bringing his attention back to the reason he was here. “Wernit, say hello to Mal.”
The small boy had a celery stick halfway into his mouth when his mother called him. He shoved it into his mouth and swallowed it after only chewing it once or twice. His big eyes were even wider as he stared at Mal.
“I am Malenthiar Thomas.” Mal decided to start the conversation. “I’m going to be your magic tutor.”
“I am Wernit Elutran.” Wern said. His voice wavered.
“Nice to meet you, Wernit. You can call me Mal. Can I call you Wern?” Wern looked to his mother for support. She nodded her head. Mal pretended not to see and waited for Wern to nod along with her.
“Great! We’re getting along already. Should we go find somewhere quiet so we can start the lesson?”
Wern frozen in place, his face slackening, shooting a panicked look at his mother and sister. All right. Probably not a good idea.
“How about moving over to the lounge?” Mal pointed to the entrance of the apartment. “That way you can still see your family and they can come say hi if they want.”
Wern’s stricken face relaxed a little and he managed to nod in acquiescence. Retynia gave Mal an encouraging smile and he led Wern over to the big, white couch in the lounge.
It turned out Wern was not magically gifted like João was, nor was he nervous about Mal. Wern was scared of magic. He didn’t realize it right away, but Wern nearly died of shock when Mal asked him if he wanted to see him weave something and he figured it out. Mal didn’t know why no one told him, though given his mother’s attitudes, his guess was that it was something of a cultural taboo. It would also explain why Wern’s parents were so insistent on getting a tutor who could weave. Being exposed to simple, kid friendly magic would probably go a long way towards helping him adjust.
Mal wasn’t surprised he was scared of magic at all. Plenty of adults were, though admittedly they were mostly humans. Mal didn’t blame him, though. The news was full of magic gone wrong, whether it was a teenager ‘experimenting’ with magic that caused an accident or someone using humanity's new grasp on the extranormal to commit crimes, magic’s depiction in the news media was rarely positive. That wasn’t even factoring in television and movies. Even if they often showed the heroes having magic, it was almost always used in a violent fashion.
So instead of talking about magic, Mal decided to stick to the purely non-magical aspects to start. He had Wern go through the basic forms with his hands, correcting him when he made the occasional mistake. He followed it up by talking about aug athletes. By this point, Wern had relaxed enough to make simple conversation, though it was clear he was not as confident in the Eten language as his sister or mother.
Mal slowly brought the conversation from aug athletes who focused on direct expressions, using magic to enhance their physical prowess, to athletes that used both direct expression and spells. When he brought up Luca Carvalho, he got his first interruption of the session.
“We don’t like Luca Carvalho in this house,” Retynia called from the kitchen, an amused smile on her face, “You should hear what Kottianny says about him.”
“He’s awful. And a coward. An awful coward.” Tian was indignant. “He pretended to be injured in order to trick Marlleu and Zala. It was dishonorable and pathetic. They need to take away his championship. And bar him from the professional circuit. You know he’s entering this year? People think he’s a favorite to win. Why? Because he got lucky twice? His team did all the work for him. If he hadn't hidden like a coward, he would have gone down to Team Canada’s opening just like the rest of his team.”
Tian glared at Mal as if daring him to disagree. Rudy thought his feigning an injury was brilliant, and staying hidden was the only thing that allowed Brazil to win, so it was a good strategy, no matter what you thought about it. Mal wasn’t going to say it though. He was shy, not stupid.
“O-okay. Let’s talk about something else then. Sound good, Wern?”
Wern nodded.
“Wern,” Mal kept his voice gentle, “Your sister says you know some magic. Can you show me?”
Wern took several seconds to answer. “Yeah.” He didn’t sound too nervous, which was good. He moved his hands, fumbling his way through the simplest of spells. It was only a single form, and moved air like a fan for a few moments. Mal felt the weave take form and Wern pointed at him. Mal’s hair ruffled as the air passed over it.
“That’s a good spell,” Mal said. It wasn’t really. Wern’s hand form was only just accurate enough to form the spell weave and it took him quite a while for such a simple spell, but that was not the point. “Air spells are some of the best. But spells can be used for all sorts of things. Did you see your mom’s hair?”
“She changed it.” Wern said, “She does that a lot.”
“I did that for her with a bit of magic,” Mal said, “My mom uses a similar one to keep my dad’s hair from going gray. Though she needs to weave hers every day. Mine will stay for a lot longer than that.”
“That was magic?” Wern gazed at his mother’s hair in apprehension.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“Yeah.” Wern did not sound so sure.
“My sister uses a spell to change the color of her nails. It only lasts a day so she has tries all sorts of different colors.” Mal held his fingers up for Wern to see. He wiggled them and wove a simple spell, causing his fingernails to change into a rainbow of sparkling colors. “Cosmetic magic is the most popular use of magic in the world.”
Wern’s eyes bulged at the display but he still managed to speak. “C-cool.”
“It’s not just my fingers,” Mal said, pointing down at Wern’s own hands.
Wern’s eyes darted down, His nails were a deep, shining blue that perfectly matched his eyes. He yelped in surprise, holding his hands up to his face and staring at his fingernails. When they didn’t do anything he visibly relaxed.
“I didn’t feel anything.”
“Magic is life,” Mal said, “It’s natural and it’s all around us. Of course you didn’t feel anything. The magic was already there, it was always there. I just made it show itself.” It was a completely inaccurate statement and a gross simplification of what he did, but it got his point across. Probably.
Wern was still staring at his hands, this time with a frown on his face. “Can your spell make them yellow?”
“It’s my sister’s spell, but I can make them any color you want.” Mal said. “But before I do that, let’s learn some cleaning spells.” Wern made a worried look with his face, so Mal added, “We’re not going to weave them today, we are just going to learn how they work.”
The rest of the session went well. Mal was able to coax Wern into learning a few cleaning spells by the end of the lesson and dutifully changed his fingernails to be yellow. It would only last a day, and by the way Retynia was looking at him, he doubted very much that she minded at all.
Mal finished up with Wern after their two hours came to an end, leaving Wern with homework to learn one non-cleaning spell before their next session. Tian came to collect him and bring him home, making Wern thank Mal before he ran off to his room. Retynia met them at the door and Mal tried not to stare as she counted out a thousand dollars for the two hours of work. The amount was absurd, well beyond what he was actually worth, but Retynia was all too happy to pay it. She hadn't stopped beaming at him since she noticed his and Wern’s colorful fingernails.
Tian brought him home, avoiding the freeways as much as possible to miss the rush hour traffic. They were partially successful, but the half-hour drive still took closer to forty-five minutes. When she dropped Mal off at his home, she called after him as he was walking away from his car.
“Mal, wait!” Tian was shouting through her window.
He walked back, bending his head so he could talk to her. “Yeah?”
“Thanks. For Wern. No one’s been able to get him to do anything for a while.”
It wasn’t that hard. Was it really such a big deal? “No problem. I love magic, so I just talked about the parts I like a lot.” Mal gave her a small shrug. “He seemed comfortable enough.”
“The fingernail thing was really clever.” Tian smiled. “I thought for sure he would panic when he saw his nails had changed color, but it’s so simple I think it caught him off guard. It’s hard to be scared of a little color change.”
“You like that?” Mal smiled. “I can do yours, too.”
“Can you do my hair?” Tian said instantly. Her eyes were eager, her face hopeful. She flushed a second later. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like that. Mom’s hair just looked so good and I thought that maybe since we are friends-”
“What color?” Mal said, already weaving the spell. “You want it permanent like your mom’s?”
“Really? You’ll do that for me?”
“Of course.” She had said they were friends.
“Can you do blue? To match my eyes like you did with Wern and his fingernails.”
“Sure.” Mal finished the weave, placing the spell on Tian’s hair. It took hold changing her darker gray hair to a glossy, deep blue in a wave of color. “I made it a bit shiny too, like you see in the commercials. I always thought it looked pretty. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Shiny?” Tian adjusted her rear view mirror to reflect her face. Her mouth popped into a cute little ‘oh’ of surprise.
“It will be permanent like your mom’s, and the color won’t fade, but it will grow out so I’ll have to touch it up every…” Mal trailed off. Tian was staring at a fistful of her own hair in the mirror. “Are you okay?”
Tian shrieked in joy and wrapped Mal in an awkward hug through the car window. That was probably a yes.
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Mal was unsuccessful in finding another client for him to tutor. He had only looked at his email once since the first day, and he wasn’t sure if he could do it again. The woman who had been upset that he wouldn’t lower his rates had taken to the Greater LA Moms forums. Mal didn’t know what exactly she said, but his email was full of moms berating him for many different things. The dark pit in his stomach threatened to overwhelm him every time he thought about it.
So he didn’t think about it.
Luckily, Retynia had done better. As promised, she spoke to her friends about his services. One contacted him, or rather, had their people contact him the very same day he tutored Wern. It was a little surreal, coordinating with a client through their personal assistant. Mal didn’t even know his client’s name, just that their personal assistant was named Sherry and she worked for Mr Bennett. He was to tutor Mr Bennett’s child, Cassidy. Mal accepted, they were paying the absurd rate of five hundred dollars per hour that Retynia insisted on and he needed the money.
The address that Sherry gave Mal was in Beverly Hills, which normally would have been a big problem for a teenager without a driver’s license. Mr Bennett, however, was sending his car. So the next day, Mal stood outside his house. He was wearing the same outfit he wore at Tian’s, slightly chilly in the cool December evening, waiting to be picked up by Mr Bennett’s driver.
It wasn’t long before an unfamiliar car approached the house. It wasn’t a limousine exactly, more of a long car, but it stood out enough to make Mal uncomfortable. The car pulled up beside Mal and before he could even reach to open the door it opened and a woman popped out.
“Malenthiar Thomas? I’m Sherry.” The woman said. She was bleach blonde and wearing a tight business suit and heels. Her hair was tied back behind her head into a severe bun. A pair of rectangular glasses rested on her nose and she only glanced at him before returning her eyes to the tablet in her arms. “If you would step inside we can be on our way.”
Mal stepped into the long car, bending over so as not to hit his head on the roof. The inside of the car was luxurious. Probably. Mal wasn’t sure what exactly qualified, but the limo-car surely did. The seats were thick and plush and there was almost enough leg room for Mal to spread out on the floor. The space between the driver and the passenger area was taken up by a mini bar and TV.
Mal shuffled across the thick seating to make room for Sherry, having a little trouble due to the plushness of the seat. They kept trying to swallow him up. Sherry entered a second later and the door swung closed behind her on its own. She pressed a button on the ceiling, and the car rolled away from the curb.
Sherry reached to the side and produced a briefcase out of nowhere. Had that been in the car? How had he missed that? She popped it open and pulled a manila folder out of it, handing it to Mal. There was a picture of a pretty teenage girl of around fourteen paperclipped to it, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
“We put that together for you already, so you don’t have to make your own,” Sherry said. “It’s a full dossier on Cassidy and her learning habits. You should be able to use them to more effectively teach her.” Sherry fixed him with a sincere stare, “Mr Bennet asked me to convey how happy we are to be able to get you as a tutor. We didn’t think there were any of you in LA that were tutoring.”
“Okay.” Mal cringed a little as he heard the hesitancy in his own voice. He did not like the sound of that statement. Any part of it. He flipped open the file, revealing a typed summary of Cassidy that looked a lot more like a criminal record than expected.
Name: Cassidy Bennett
D.O.B.: 2035/09/03
Sex: F
Height: 5’5’’
Weight: 112 lbs
Weight? Why did he need to know that?
First Crush: Nickolas Jonis
Nope. No, no, no. Way too personal. Mal shut the folder.
“You should study up on that before you meet Cassidy.” Sherry said with a mild frown of disapproval.
“I’ll study it later,” Mal lied, “I prefer my first meeting with students to be on more equal terms.” There was no way he was ever going through that.
“Studies show that establishing a proper student/teacher relationship from the outset had a greatly increased impact on a child’s -”
“Magic is different,” Mal said. He didn’t care if reading that would let him transfer his knowledge directly into Cassidy’s brain, he wasn’t reading it. “It requires trust and understanding.”
Sherry looked like she wasn’t buying what he was selling, which was a point for her instincts. Mal was making it up completely.
“Very well,” Sherry said. “If you aren’t going to read that you should be aware that Cassidy is going through a phase.”
Great. “A phase? What phase?” Mal felt bad for the girl. People had said he was going through a phase before too. It always felt like people pretending to know what was going on inside his head better than he did.
Sherry pursed her lips. “Rude.”
“Rude?”
“Rude.”
Great. Mal felt himself already regretting this. Maybe he would tell them he was too busy later. Retynia might get upset by that though. And Tain. Maybe she would stop training with him. And if he turned down the job and Retynia ended his, he would be out of work. Mal sighed. He was pretty sure rude wasn’t an acknowledged ‘phase’.
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The car pulled around to the back of a huge house that appeared to be in the middle of a pool party. Music was blaring and people were shouting from the poolside as others, mostly fully clothed young women, jumped into the pool.
Sherry led him right past it, thank god, and into the house. The doors were left wide open and the sounds of the party drifted in at full volume. The house itself was enormous and sprawling, with high ceilings and large open spaces. Sherry brought him to a grand, curved staircase, showing him up the stairs and down a wing of the home. The house had wings.
She stopped by a door and knocked on it three times before opening it without waiting for a response. Mal cringed. He hated when his parents did that. Mal stopped by the door instead of entering, deciding then and there he would not be like his parents to Cassidy. He still poked his head in though.
Cassidy was laying on her bed, feet kicked up and texting on her phone. She was still in her school volleyball uniform, a black jersey and tight, very short, red shorts that were probably not appropriate for anything but a volleyball court. Mal recognized the colors from the few times he had watched Rudy dominate whatever sport he chose to play. Harvard-Westlake, if he wasn’t mistaken. Probably the most expensive school in the country.
He was proven right when Cassidy sat up on her bed, revealing the school’s name across the uniform.
“Sherry! I told you not to do that!” Cassidy screamed.
“Your tutor is here, Miss Cassidy,” Sherry said, ignoring Cassidy’s shouting.
“Hi. I’m Malenthiar Thomas. Can I come in?” Even to Mal it sounded lame. He added a little wave. That probably didn’t help.
Cassidy’s head snapped to the side and fixed on Mal, seeing him for the first time. He gave her an awkward smile. Cassidy’s cheeks flushed and she spun back around on her bed, returning to her phone.
“You’d better just come in Malenthiar,” Sherry said, “Otherwise you'll be standing in the hall the entire time.”
“I hate it when people go into my room without permission.” Mal said. “Cassidy, can I come in?”
Mal thought she was ignoring him again; she was quiet for so long, but eventually she spoke. “Only if Sherry goes away.”
Sherry left without saying another word, maintaining a professionally neutral face the entire time.
“May I come in now?” Mal said, once Sherry was out of sight.
“Yes.”
Mal took a step into the room, closing the door behind him. The room was surprisingly soundproof, cutting off the sounds of the raging party outside. The inside reminded him a lot of his sister’s own room. It was a little messy, with Cassidy’s backpack and some school books on the floor, and a few pieces of clothing strewn about, but nothing too bad. There were too many pillows on the bed and a large variety of stuffed animals as well, placed in easy to reach places around the room. She had a large desk which was absolutely covered in collectable figurines, and a white computer that was glowing pink from a backlight.
Mal pulled the computer chair away from the desk and sat down. “I’m Malenthiar Thomas.”
“I heard you the first time.” Rude. “What’s that?” Cassidy turned her head to the side, noticing the manila folder in his hands.
“Oh it’s-it’s a file on you.” Mal offered her the folder.
“Ahhh!” Cassidy screeched. She bounced from the bed and tore the folder from his hands. “Did you read it?” Her face was flushed red. It looked like she had been crying.
“No. Yes. Only until it said first crush. I thought it was too personal and I stopped.”
“I don’t even like Nick!” Cassidy yelled. She tossed the folder to the floor where it exploded into a mess of papers.
“I don’t know who that is anyway.” Mal said. “You know what is in that?”
“They give one to every person who comes here.” Cassidy said. Her voice lowered a small amount and she sat on her bed with a huff. “I found out about them forever ago.”
“They?”
Cassidy crossed her arms. “My parents.”
Mal nodded. “Who’s Nick?” Wrong question, going by the red in her face at least.
“No one. A basketball player.” Cassidy’s blush deepened.
“I like my trainer. Like, like-like. I’m also tutoring her little brother. It’s really awkward.”
“You like Tian?” Cassidy was instantly interested. Oh no. Oh no. Of course they knew each other. What was he thinking? Why did he tell her that? “Why did you tell me that?”
Mal blushed furiously. “I didn’t think you would know who I was talking about. And it was only fair. I knew something about you that was personal.” He probably should have realized that they knew each other, given how quickly her father reached out to him for tutoring.
“I don’t like Nick!”
“Then you can’t talk to Tian about what I said.”
It was Cassidy’s turn to blush. She looked down at her knees. “If I did like Nick could I tell her?”
“No.” Mal forced himself to look at Cassidy. “We’re supposed to be learning about magic.”
“Fine. Teach me. If you even can.”
Mal sighed. Did he have to show everyone he knew that he could do magic? “I can teach you. Do you need me to weave something?”
“Weave?”
“That’s the word Etens use instead of saying ‘we cast spells’.” Mal said, “Actually this entire lesson should probably be in the Eten language, but I doubt you speak that.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Cassidy scowled, “I already know everything. I’m probably better at magic than you. So you can’t teach me.”
Mal raised his eyebrows. “Show me the basic forms, then.”
“No. That’s baby stuff. You’re supposed to teach me something.”
Mal frowned. “I need to know where your knowledge ends.”
“Just assume it is at the same place you were when you were sixteen. I’m fifteen so it should be about the same.”
Mal suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He was supposed to be the mature one. The teacher. “Fine. Do you have a Professor Pewter’s Puzzle Pack?”
“No. What’s that?”
“It’s a sphere. It is a bunch of magic puzzles that you can do even if you haven’t integrated or you can’t touch magic. You need to get one and you need to finish it.” It was a little petty for him to ask that, though he wasn’t technically sixteen when he finished it, and she thought she could do it too, so Mal wasn’t going to stop her from trying. “I got mine when I was fourteen and it took me over a year to finish, but I’m sure you will be able to do it no problem.”
“It took you a year?” She looked more than a little skeptical. “To finish a children’s puzzle?”
“A year, working on it every single day.” Mal said, ignoring the barb. “But since you don’t have one of those, can you instead show me the basic signs?”
“What can you even do?” Cassidy said, “I don’t see why I should learn from you if you can’t even finish a children’s puzzle.”
Mal took a deep breath. Was being annoyed better or worse than being embarrassed? Probably better, at least he felt he could talk normally. “I changed Tian’s hair recently. The color. And her mom’s.”
“That was you?” Cassidy said, open mouthed, “Her hair looks really good!”
“Thank you,” Mal smiled.
“Do it to me, too.”
“What?”
“To prove you can do it. Do it to me too. Make mine lighter though, to match my eyes like you did for her.”
Mal drew on the magic, weaving the strands together until they solidified into a spell. Instead of focusing it on Cassidy, he changed his own hair color. “Like that?” Mal said, pointing to his own head.
“Yes! Just like that. Now do me.”
“No.” Mal wove a second spell, returning his hair to its natural, extremely dark purple. “Show me the weave to do that and I will.”
Cassidy bit her lip. “Can you show me again?”
“Sure.” Mal wove the spell, turning his hair dark blue to match Tian’s eyes this time. A second later he turned it back.
“Hey! You didn’t use your hands!”
“I only use them for difficult spells or when I’m learning a new one.” Mal said, “Hand forms are more of a tool to help people learn than a necessity.”
“How am I supposed to show you the forms if I don’t know them?” Cassidy stood from her bed and crossed her arms. “That’s not fair.”
“You’re supposed to figure it out,” Mal said. “But since you don’t know how to do that, it sounds like I can teach you something, doesn’t it?”
“I can do it! I just need to know where to start.”
Mal smiled. He reached into his backpack and took out a pen and paper, along with a diagram of all the basic forms in a knot riddled web. He placed them all on Cassidy’s desk. “The first form is empty. That weave only uses basic forms, but it’s very complex. Sketch it out and if you get it right, you can show me the hand movements.”
“And if I get that, you’ll dye my hair?”
“Yes.” Mal blushed. “But before we do that, can you please put on some pants?”
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Mal stared out the window of the long car as Rodrigo took him home. Rodrigo was the same driver who had picked him up, but Mal didn’t get the opportunity to see him. Cassidy did not figure out the weave for the hair color spell, so Mal made it a long term goal. She hadn’t put on pants either.
Sherry did not join him for the return trip, but she did pay him for the two hours of tutoring. She had a number of questions about what Mal was teaching Cassidy. Mal answered as vaguely as he could. The constant minding of Cassidy didn’t feel right to him. He did tell her to get Cassidy a Professor Pewter’s Puzzle Pack, though. He reminded Cassidy to do so when he left, but he doubted she would remember.
Now, all he could think about was that he had to get through the same session every week for the next six months. Maybe rude really was a phase. One could hope.
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