Cherri and her sisters emerged from hiding, squeezing out through the smaller gaps in the windows to call over people to break down their barricade to get to the injured children within. Families that were visiting that had healers in them, such as Nubra’s herbalist mother went from patient to patient as guards searched through buildings for any unaccounted injured. Almost two hours after the fighting had stopped the campus was returning to an almost state of normalcy… no one who had attended the Faire was missing, the wounded were being tended to and family members were preparing to depart. The sky was beginning to lighten up and Dana knew he had put off dealing with the ritual in the Iris as long as he possibly could and headed back down to the chamber housing the Fount. Several of his students were waiting there already, along with Meira and her aunt Lorna.
“We have a good hour or two before sun up and we lose this opportunity” Lorna began. “We believe we have a decent grasp on what is supposed to happen during the ritual. Encircling the first spell with the liquid sun concentrates magic and material components, and opening the iris adds in the raw essence that makes all magic work… with the convergence of these energies for a brief time the performer of the ritual can change things… and we think you should be the one to do it.”
“Me?” Dana exclaimed, being taken somewhat aback. “I’m no wizard, I could take a test in basic spellcraft and get outperformed by an eight-year-old with how little I know.”
“We understand… and that is partially why we think you should be the one. The ritual itself will power enough change to negate the effects going forward… to do much of anything else the ritualist will need to expend their own magics… your lack thereof, and your general ignorance of the various factions at play in our world mean both very little will have the chance to be changed… and our own… biases will not affect things.”
“So you think even unconsciously whoever completes the ritual will make things better for their own people and that could upset your society?” Dana looked over the girls gathered in the room, he had gotten to know each of them quite well in these past few weeks and could not imagine any of them losing their heads to such an extent they would shift things in their favor.
“It… it is a possibility.” Laverne walked up to them both, cradling the ritual book she had kept hidden in her room. “My want of a real family could create one, or brainwash some people into thinking I belonged to them.”
“I would bring my sister home,” Jett said solemnly. Each of them had some hidden desire or want, D’Arcy to have another chance, Daeva to be accepted as she is, Akuji simply saying she would probably ask for the story to end all stories.
“But some of these things would be good to have happen, wouldn’t they?” Dana asked, most of their wants seemed fair and honest things they deserved to get… Family, Friends, Success…
“Yes, but a few years back we had a djinn teaching here… she fielded all sorts of questions about wishes, and how they could twist and bend into things unrecognizable at the end… she said it was the way magic worked.”
Meira put an arm around Dana’s shoulders. “Said the universe extracts a price for even the smallest wishes… if that cost is not time and work and study… it takes its cost from elsewhere. Usually from where you least want it.”
“So you think that I should be the one to pay that price?” Dana laughed softly, holding his hand up to their shocked faces. “Easy… I’m kidding. I understand your reasoning and I can get behind it.” He pulled Eterna’s ring from his pocket and walked over to the raised dias overlooking the Fount’s iris. Once again the liquid sun applied around the edges and shone brightly as their rays focused on the spell scroll laying in the center… floating the arcane parchment into the air. He slipped the President’s ring onto his finger, holding his hand out over the iris as he had seen the warlock do earlier.
“Open!” The metal iris on the floor slid cleanly open, releasing a torrent of dark red energy straight up like a geyser. It hit the floating parchment, engulfing it as the concentrated energies mixed and grew into a maelstrom of colors he couldn’t help but stare at. It roiled and pulsed violently before streaking across the room and hitting him right in the chest, instantly darkening his vision.
“Hello!” A chipper voice sounded in his head as he struggled to open his eyes… to his surprise he found himself floating high above the planet, the sky a red hue that almost matched the magic energy that had spewed forth from the fount. Next to him, a small, almost cherubic creature floated, an expectant look on her face. “It has been quite some time since we had visitors! And one with so little magic to speak of, you must have quite a tale to tell.”
“Who are you?” Dana’s eyes were drawn down, towards the earth far below as a moment of panic took him, his imagination showing him graphic visions of his body crashing to the ground. “What is happening?”
“I am… a kind of go-between. You are in the ley lines magic and I am simply here to make communicating what you want from this spell easier.” She winked playfully at him. “Your real body is back wherever you left it…hope you left care instructions… nothing quite so disturbing as returning to a body to find it unlivable… or worse, newly occupied.”
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“That… that can happen?”
“Oh yes, so much more often than people really expect. Neighbor acting a little weird? Check who is running the skin suit that day. People really take seeing a person’s outside to guarantee what is on the inside when there is just no real way to know.” The chipper voice of the creature as she described what only could be thought of as some kind of possession was disturbing, to say the least.
“Then maybe I should not tarry here long… how does this work now?”
“You tell me what you want to change and I take care of the rest really? What are we going to do? World domination? Make someone love you who doesn’t? These rituals are usually only performed by one type of caster to be fair.”
“That’s why I want to make this ritual no longer able to be used… too much temptation to use it in the ways that you described.” Dana watched the cherub’s reaction. “This… you said it had been a while since you had visitors here… is this ritual the only way you can have someone to talk to?”
“Oh no, silly. There are as many ways to contact the spirit of magic as there are stars… doesn’t make anyone more likely to use them.” She smiled a little sadly, a certain loneliness passing over her eyes. “It’s the same with the ritual… almost any wizard wanting something out of the world makes their own change the world to what I want spell. Most of them burn to a crisp at the influx of energy but plenty manage. More than one of the truths you hold dear were set in place by such magics.”
“Well then after today there will be at least one less. I can only worry about the one in front of me. Maybe it won’t change anything in the long run but I feel like I have to do my part.” Dana looked down again, he thought he could almost make out the island with the University on it alone out in the ocean. “I owe it to them as their teacher… as their friend.”
“How… benevolent. Now just what else do you want to make different? While we are at it should we try for world peace? End to hunger? Poverty?” The cherub’s tone never changed even now that they were discussing more happy terms. Dana got the feeling that she would be okay with anything… there was no judgment in her eyes. Like the magic she represented, there was no care how it was directed… just possibility.
“I thought the ritual only had enough magic for the one change… locking off the ritual from other people forever.”
“That is true but there is a little leftover… and you can always add magic to it to make other things… possible.” She rolled over in the air, the tiny wings on her back fluttering wildly to keep herself alight.
“You said yourself I have little by the way of magic in me.” Dana watched the small creature.
“That is true… and also not true. There is magic in everything. What you may lack in inherent magic ability you have other options… after all where there is life there is magic. It is in all people’s bodies, their bones, their blood. Fuel the change you want to see, Mr Wilde.” The impish grin on the thing’s face no longer made him think it was completely innocent, despite the cute exterior he once again realized how out of his depth he was still.
“Blood? Bone?”
“Everything has a cost, the sooner you realize that the better. Think of it like a cosmic vending machine… but in the tokens, hit the number you want, and out pops your selection.”
“I am not sure I want anything so badly that I am willing to just carve off parts of me to pay for it… spirit whatever your name might be.”
“Spirit works for now… I don’t really have a name… or an identity really. But do not fret too much… I cannot take what is not freely given. Tell me what you want and we can work something out I am sure…”
“Maybe… maybe there is a thing or two I can think of to change around here…”
~ * ~
When Dana came to he was still in the Fount’s chamber, everyone there was standing in a circle around him looking down where he lay.
“I think it worked but how can we be sure until someone tries the ritual only to find it doesn’t work?” Dana struggled to a seated position, the blood in his head throbbing from the ritual.
“I think we are covered on that at least.” Laverne and Lorna were both staring at the ritual book. They turned it towards him and flipped through the pages and where the latter part of the book was covered in runes and diagrams about how to perform the rite, all there was now were blank pages. “Seems like as part of blocking the ritual you eliminated all traces that it ever really existed.
“That’s a relief… that means it is over… at least this trouble. The school, the warlock, th end of the world… things can go back to normal?”
“Oh wildman, that’s the best part… this is normal.” Meira punched him lightly in the arm. “Put all this magic in one place, all these people from different races and beliefs as to how to use it… its pure chaos.” With a grin she leaned in, grabbing the front of his shirt and giving him a full kiss on the lips. “Just have to hold on and lean into the madness. I’m glad you are part of it.”
“Me too Meira. Glad I’m here… and you are too. Help me up… help me up… I want to see something.”
“Sure… Wilde… sure.” The elf helped him to his feet, following him back out to the rising sun of the morning over the campus. They headed south over the mess from the battle the previous day to the scholarship dorm.
Where once there had been a run-down mess of a dormitory, broken roof tiles, and run down looking there was now something brand new. It wasn’t some shining beacon of advancement or better than the rest of the dorms in the school but at least now it was on par with the fancier buildings. Dana laughed as he looked over the new dorm, no longer a place many of his girls would regret living in or be mocked for but a home they could be happy with.
“I couldn’t help but make a little improvement… think of it like so many of the others… my donation to the University.” He beamed a smile at her, pulling Meira into his arms.
“It’s just like you… what did the magic make you pay for this anyway?” She hugged him back, grinning ear to ear.
“Nothing I will miss I assure you… I just had to make a couple of things right… after all the loss, I figured my students could use at least one win.”
“Wait… a couple?”
“Come see… if this worked you’ll love the facelift I gave thee Exalted.”