Olly Briggs
Olly looked on fearfully as his uncle observed the damage, appearing deep in thought.
“I don’t know what happened, or how I did it, or if I did it,” Olly rambled on, panicking.
His uncle placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Okay, deep breaths kid, walk me through it again, slowly.”
He recounted the events, downplaying the argument that preceded it and instead claiming things got heated over his performance.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been trying, but I’m sure that I’m never going to be good enough to pass the test. And now this happened, whatever it is!” He felt himself on the verge of tears.
“Olly, it’s been five lessons, I’m not expecting you to be some kind of savant, not compared to children who’ve had lifelong tutoring.”
“I don’t care if I pass the test, I really don’t. I could live with that. But what do we do about this!” he gestured wildly at the table.
"The table? Eh, don't sweat it, it was due for replacement," Eli said nonchalantly as he picked up the ruler, examining it. “I guess there’s more than one way to show magical aptitude, most people just unlock it differently.” He seemed entirely unperturbed.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?!” Olly demanded while wrapping his arms around himself as a way of trying to soothe the storm that was raging within him. He felt off-kilter, unstable. Olly didn’t understand it, how could his uncle be so calm about this new development and just gloss over the details? He seemed more concerned about a test Olly never asked to take.
He lowered himself to the floor, letting emotion take over. Sobs wracked through his chest.
“I-I don’t know what you w-want me to do,” he choked out, desperately looking up at Eli for any kind of comfort, “This doesn’t feel right. Things were normal a week ago, n-nothing has felt normal since t-then.”
Eli looked troubled and let the hand holding the ruler fall to his side. As if letting a mask fall he looked towards the ceiling with a groan and closed his eyes. His eyes fluttered back open and he knelt down to Olly’s level.
“Okay. Let’s deal with this first, then we can revisit the aptitude test if you’re ready. I just… I know it doesn’t make sense right now but I need you to trust me. Please,” he said sincerely,
Olly hiccuped, feeling the storm starting to subside. He did trust Eli, there was no one else he could trust quite like him, but he was scared. He didn’t know what the end game was here, and if he had to learn in due time, fine, but he wasn’t going to keep his discomfort to himself. Not after he lost control in anger not but an hour earlier. He needed answers on that at least.
“Okay,” Olly conceded, after a moment. Eli gave him a smile and ruffled his hair affectionately.
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Olly found himself seated across from a woman, likely in her late fifties. After the incident in the kitchen, Eli had made some phone calls and brought him to see her. He called her a Reader. Olly had heard of Readers but only knew that they were mainly seen as pseudoscience. They claimed to be able to see and hear things others could not, be it a person’s future, messages from beyond the grave, and the like. They offered services such as palm readings and seances for money, and while most people didn’t believe they were legitimate, some people swore by them.
Olly was surprised not only that his uncle believed enough to bring him here, but also that he seemed to know this woman. He grasped her outstretched hand in both of his and gave her a reverent kiss on the cheek. Many things his uncle did surprised him these days.
Lola, as she introduced herself, was also a bit of a surprise. He would’ve expected drapey fabrics with bold patterns, and a neck adorned with many strings of beaded necklaces. She had none of these, instead, she was stylishly dressed in what Olly would call normal clothes. In a slim-fitting black turtleneck and slacks, he would not have picked her out in a crowd.
“Lola, this is my nephew, Olly,” Eli introduced them, stepping aside and gesturing to Olly who had been standing partially behind him.
“Olly, so lovely to meet you,” she said warmly and ignored his outstretched hand, instead placing her hands on either of his shoulders. “Eli didn’t say much on the phone, just that you needed my services. But I can see that you’re frightened. Something happened to you very recently that’s causing conflict.”
She wasn’t wrong, though he wondered if he just wore a permanent look of alarm on his face these days.
“Olly has had some trouble recently,” Eli explained, “We're hoping you can take a peek and see what's going on inside his head. Can you help us with that?”
“Interesting,” she said, scanning his eyes. Olly wanted to blink and look away but the way she stared at him was mesmerizing, as if she was looking into his very soul.
“What is it?” Olly asked nervously.
“Nothing, yet, but I need to prepare. I can tell this will be a special kind of reading. You’re not like the usual type who would come in here, curious about magic and wondering if there’s a chance at the aptitude test. You don’t have that desperation. You felt secure in yourself and life until now. Isn’t that right?”
“Erm, yes,” he admitted. No point in telling lies for Eli’s sake now. She let go of his hands and walked to a small table. He made eye contact with his uncle, who once again wore his typical unreadable and unreachable, all-business public persona.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He also realized, that unless Eli had mentioned something to Lola beforehand, Olly hadn't said anything to her about the aptitude test, or magic.
“Come, please,” she offered, gesturing to the seat across the table from her. He took it. Eli sat back on a couch she had to the side of her reading room, partially obscured in shadow. The whole room was dimly lit, or did it just feel that way suddenly? He couldn’t remember. She lit a candle between them and patted her hands gently on the table.
“Palms up,” she instructed gently. He obeyed and she placed her hands above his, hovering so that they weren’t quite touching.
“We’ll start slow, and then I’ll ask more probing questions. First, do you consent to me performing this reading, in present company, and not just because your uncle brought you here?”
“I need you to trust me. Please.” His uncle’s earlier words came back to him. If this helped him get answers then he was okay with it.
“Yes,” he confirmed, wondering if he imagined a sigh of relief coming from Eli’s corner.
“Good. Next, I detect that you feel like you’re not in control right now. If I told you that you would have the ability to make several key choices for yourself, would that surprise you?”
“A bit, I don’t feel like I have a lot of options right now.”
“That will change, in time. I’m sensing several paths, each taking you down a different road in life. You have a lot of potential but it’s very much unrealized right now. Which paths can you see?”
He screwed his eyes shut. “Um, not many. I see taking the test and failing and going back home.”
“Interesting… I see other paths available to you, by your own choice. Tell me what you think of when you say ‘home’?”
“Hijinks, the bar my uncle owns, and the house we live in down the street from it. My uncle is the only family I’ve ever known. And I know everyone at Hijinks, there’s the regulars and they know me, they talk to me. I feel like I belong.” He was a little embarrassed by this confession but found the words came out readily, it was easy to confess to her.
“Do you feel like you don’t have all the information you would like?”
He almost snorted. “Yes.”
“Study will help with that, education in any format will open doors and reveal information to you, but only you can provide the motivation needed to walk those paths. Can I speak of your potential?”
“Yes,” he said, warily.
“You have an undiscovered amount of potential. You have uncertainty of what you want, or why you should want it, but you are limiting yourself from reaching it. You will have to be comfortable with the discomfort should you want to see more paths available to you. May we speak of the source of your internal conflict?”
“Yes.”
“It’s very strong, something happened today, did it not?”
“It did.”
“What did you feel? What was your strongest emotion?”
He paused, remembering how worthless the tutor made him feel. “Shame. Anger.”
“What do you feel now?”
“Confusion, I’m not sure why I’ve been put in this situation.”
“Your confusion is leading to fear of the unknown. You must overcome this in order to learn and grow. Now, what happened when you experienced this shame and anger? I’m sensing a strong reaction.”
“I…” He hesitated.
“Embrace it, you are blocking me from this, I cannot help you if you can’t face your fears.”
He took a deep breath and forced himself to relive the argument. “I got angry. Very angry. The next thing I knew there was a bang and I had damaged some objects, without ever touching them.”
“Show me,” she demanded.
“I… I can’t. I won’t do it again,” he stammered.
“You cannot hurt me. Find your courage.”
At first, he didn’t want to, but he let the negative thoughts of the last few days seep into his mind. The way he felt unheard by his uncle, the tutor’s scathing remarks, the helplessness of having his future picked for him, all of it. Above all, he thought about how much he wanted the comfort and security of his old life to return to him. Perhaps if he followed along there was a chance he could obtain that again.
He felt a surge up through his palms and he tried to fight it, however, something about having her hands hovering over his seemed to amplify the sensation. He opened his eyes to see what looked like golden energy flowing between their hands. She was intently concentrated on it and appeared to control the output, unlike during his earlier outburst when it seemed to explode forth from him in one short burst. Now that it was present he was unable to extinguish it.
Eli was leaning forward, watching them intently, frowning.
Good, Olly thought, you can deal with surprises for a change.
“This is… Ah!” she cried as something akin to an electric shock zapped between their hands. She broke the connection and the magic fizzled out, to his great relief.
“I thought you said I couldn’t hurt you?” he asked worriedly.
She stared at his hands, which he now had clenched into fists that he held at his chest.
“You are different,” she finally said, looking perplexed, “You do have magical ability, but you don’t wish to use it. It’s very peculiar, very odd.”
“Peculiar… Odd…” he repeated in horror.
“Odd doesn’t mean bad,” Eli chimed from the couch. Olly didn’t ignore him per se, he just didn’t want to speak with him at the moment.
“What does it mean though?” Olly pleaded, wondering how many surprises he could handle in one day.
“As I said, you will have choices, significant ones. You also seem to have two sides, equal and opposite to each other. I cannot describe it further, but I have not experienced that in a person in the way I’m sensing it in you.”
“Like the internal conflict you mentioned?”
“Perhaps. In either case, it dictates your reactions to things strongly, though I can't tell exactly how or why. Perhaps it's to things you find distasteful or unwanted. You have not been faced with such problems before I take it?”
“I…” It’s true. He had, up until recent events, enjoyed an easygoing existence. “No, I haven’t.”
“If it helps, this may also be an important part of growing up in learning to deal with discomfort. I think this is as far as I can take the reading today, unfortunately. We can always connect at a later date, if you have any questions or need to speak to me please don’t hesitate to give me a call,” she said, standing up to grasp his hands, “Take care young one, I hope if you’re able to take away anything from our session today it is that you have options.”
It sure doesn't feel that way, Olly thought to himself grimly.