Hailey sat on one side of the kitchen table, facing Kait. Taylor had already run to school, ten minutes late because of the whole debacle beforehand. Kait had apologized for the trouble and sent him off with a spell to keep him warm, and while Taylor was satisfied with that, Hailey found ‘transporting her brother into the void’ to be a topic worth discussing further.
Hailey shivered a little, hugging herself for warmth. “So what was that?” she asked.
“It was an…unconsciously cast spell,” Kait responded. “Because I wasn’t in control of my emotions, I cast a spell without meaning to. Usually, I can control what a spell does, but if I cast one unconsciously…I can’t control what emotions the spell uses, and so it can be volatile. Unconscious spells usually aren’t directly harmful, though,” she continued. “They do what the caster wants in an efficient and to-the-point fashion. You could call it a monkey’s paw scenario.” Kait had found that those spells were poetically comparable to being entirely open and direct. One could easily hurt another simply by saying what they wanted to. “Spells like that…most often, they are just hazards. A little harmful, but not too dangerous.”
Hailey crossed her arms, frowning. “Hazardous? You threw Taylor into a void. Is that really just a ‘hazard?’”
Kait opened her mouth, then averted her eyes. “I intend on practicing my emotional control the moment I get the chance. If I can start doing that regularly again, this shouldn’t happen.”
Hailey briefly considered asking what ‘emotional control’ was, but she shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care, but I’ll tell Mom about this.”
Kait nodded glumly. “Sorry, again. I don’t want to cause problems for you or anyone else.”
Hailey waved it off with a shrug as she stood. “Anyway, I’m going back to bed. See you.”
“And I need to buy some new clothes…” Kait muttered.
Hailey paused when she made it to the stairs. “Do you have money? Heck, do you know how to buy things?”
“I can figure it out,” Kait assured her as she walked to the door. “I can’t rely on you all for everything, you know.”
Hailey shrugged again and walked upstairs as Kait left, waving back toward Hailey as she did.
Hailey couldn’t fall back asleep. That weird emotion was still bothering her. Whenever she tried to figure out what the emotion was, she felt like she was blockaded by a chunk of ice. Sure, technically it could be called an emotion, but functionally it was just a gnawing sensation.
She stood up from her bed, feeling incredibly dizzy. Had Kait done something to her? Either way, she didn’t want to keep resting in bed just to feel like a sack of garbage. She chuckled grimly. If I were one, I’d be right at home. Her expression fell. I have to do something about this. She threw on a heavy coat.
Stumbling outside, the blast of frosty air made her feel like throwing up. Something was definitely wrong. That emotion was making her unable to think, hurting her from the inside-out. Where was Kait? Could she fix this?
She tried her best to look composed as she stumbled down the roads toward the nearby strip mall. If she couldn’t find Kait, maybe another magic user could help, like the fortune reader.
Eventually, she found her way to the fortune reader’s shop and entered, a small bell ringing as she opened the door.
The waiting room’s walls were covered in painted murals depicting the fortune reader’s ancestors, and chairs draped with colorful tapestries lined the front of the building’s glass wall. On the other side of the room, curtains hung in a doorway for people to walk through to the back. Hailey sat down to wait.
She wondered if fortune reading really was passed down or if the whole ‘ancestor’ thing was just meant to be cool. If it really was passed down, maybe she could take a ritual to learn it. While she thought, Hailey nervously put her hand in her pocket, rubbing her thumb against the ten dollar bill inside to make sure it was still there.
Wait…I just walked outside by myself for the first time…in a long time.
“Next!” a woman happily called from behind the curtains.
Hailey stood then walked through the curtains. Behind, there were two doors. The one on the left was open and painted to look like a galaxy, which Hailey walked through.
The room within was fairly small and decorated nicely. In the center was a wooden table with three chairs set beside it, and set against the walls were nightstands. On them were items used for fortune-reading. There were the usual suspects, such as a tarot cards, a crystal ball, and an assortment of animal bones, but there were also more unusual items, such as a violin bow, circuit boards, a variety of incense, and a small bowl filled with water.
A woman in her thirties sat in the chair farthest from Hailey, wearing purple and black clothing that was far baggier than it needed to be, with a little black bowtie on the collar. Hailey always had a sneaking suspicion that they were pajamas; they looked far too comfortable.
“Hey, aunt Taila…” she said hesitantly.
“Oh! Hailey, it’s nice to see you! How are you doing?” Taila, the fortune reader, walked to Hailey, giving her a big hug. “I missed you. Are you doing better after…what happened?”
She instantly regretted coming. She hadn’t properly considered what it meant to see her aunt for the first time in nearly two months, plus she felt like leaning over and barfing already. Her voice gave out a little as she said, “Uhh, feeling better, I guess.” She awkwardly patted her aunt’s back.
Taila took a step back. “So why’d you come here? Do you need a reading, or did you come to see your dear aunt?”
“The former…” Taila took a seat and motioned for Hailey to sit in the opposite chair. “I don’t know exactly why I did…uhh, I guess I’m feeling weird.”
“Are you sick?”
“No, I don’t think so. There’s, like, some sort of emotion that isn’t really an emotion in my head, and It’s making me feel dizzy.”
Taila smirked. “Are you in lo–”
“Shut up!” Hailey suddenly lashed out. She wrapped her arms around herself, touching her skin to ease the feeling of sickly vulnerability. “It feels wrong! What in grass blades is going on in my head?!” Most of her family was used to her snapping when she was stressed, but she always felt terrible when she acted that way. It felt like she couldn’t hold herself back.
Taila leaned back in surprise, then leaned her chin on her warmly clothed hands and closed her eyes. A moment passed, then she smiled. “Well, give me a moment. I think I know just what to do!” She stood and walked out of the room. A minute later, she returned with a plastic box and placed it on the table. Opening it, she removed a thin slab of concrete and two wooden blocks. She arranged the slab’s ends to be held atop the blocks. “Give it a karate chop!” She motioned to Hailey with an excited chop of her own arm.
Hailey shrugged then smashed the slab with her hand. It broke surprisingly easily. She shook off the pain. “Is that good?” she asked timidly.
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Taila gently removed the split slab from the blocks. She moved a monocle of sorts from her sleeve to her left eye and inspected the area where Hailey had broken it. “I figured you could channel your emotions into the slab to show how your emotion manifests into physical movement when I exercise my magic.” Taila scrunched her face up in shock, running a thumb over the crack of one half of the slab, then on the other. “Wow…that’s not supposed to happen. Are these defective slabs? I’ve never seen someone break one of these so perfectly! Look!” She pushed one of the slab’s broken sides into Hailey’s face, showing a perfectly smooth face as if it were butter cut by a hot knife. “What is this?!”
Hailey pushed Taila’s hand from her face. “I don’t know. You’re the reader.”
Taila sat and took a deep breath, regaining her composure. She placed the monocle back into her sleeve, then put her chin on her hands again. “Have you come into contact with any magic users besides me in the last few days?”
“Yes,” Hailey said innocuously.
She stood up and threw her hand onto the table, rattling the slabs. “REALLY?!”
“Yeah…”
“And we’re not talking about Jaine, that necromancer, right?”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to see that guy again.”
“If it’s not him, then what sort of magic user are they? How skilled are they?” She leaned closer to Hailey as she spoke. “Did they cast magic on you? Where do they live? And can I talk to them?!”
“Too many questions, auntie.” Hailey placed her hands on Taila’s shoulders and guided her back into her seat. “Kait is a witch. She’s been living with Taylor, me, and m–”
“A witch?!” She shot up from her chair again, wide-eyed.
“Chill, Tai-,” Hailey paused. Well, it was a reasonable reaction. Witchcraft was thought to be a lost magic, one whose users were killed off four hundred years ago in a crusade. Anyone would be dumbfounded by the revelation that witchcraft had been rediscovered. “I don’t know the details, but she, like, used a spell to put herself in stasis for hundreds of years and woke up two months ago.” She frowned. Was I supposed to say that? Seems like something you’d want to keep secret…Well it’s just Taila, I’m surprised Dad didn’t tell her about…Actually, in retrospect, that’s not very surprising.
Taila stood, then sat down and shriveled in her chair, sliding down it so far that her face was leaning against its backrest. “You’re not joking, are you?”
“Lying isn’t a very funny punchline,” Hailey responded with a sigh.
“Get me to her after this, alright? And don’t bother paying me.”
“Maybe…”
Taila stood again, then picked a violin bow from one of the nightstands, setting it in front of Hailey. “Pluck a string off it,” she said. She sat back down and pushed in her chair. Hailey plucked a horsehair from the bow, then awkwardly held it up. “Now, let go.”
Hailey let go of the hair, and it floated, straightening in midair, then began moving like a wave. “Cool.”
The fortune reader stared intently at the hair. “Let’s see…it’s saying…I think it’s saying you’ll be in bed for a long time. Hmm…”
“Not sure how floating hair makes you say that, but I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s been most of my days for the past few weeks.”
“You sure you aren’t sick? It says you’ll be bedridden.”
“Maybe I am. Can I leave now?”
“Not without me, you can’t!”
“Excuse me?”
“You said you would show me to that witch. Kait, you said, right?”
“I don’t think I ever agreed to that. You can take the money if you want.” She held out the ten dollar bill.
“Well, you don’t have to. I’m going straight to your house, and I’m not taking no for an answer!”
“Don’t you have work?”
“No need for work when there’s a new spellcaster in town! A witch at that! Witchcraft is the first root to fortune reading, you know.”
“What does that even mean?”
Taila shut down the shop, ushering a waiting customer out with profound “sorrys” and asking them to return the next day for a free reading. Then, once prepared, she set off with Hailey.
“I’m so excited!” Taila exclaimed
“Whoa. That’s. So. Good. To. Hear,” Hailey said, already bored.
“Come on! It’s a witch! What sort of things can she do?”
Hailey ignored the question. “I don’t get it? Don’t you have a life? It’s just a spellcaster. She’s got nothing to do with you, right?”
“Well, I, for one, don’t want anyone stealing my business in the future, so I need to assert dominance!” She gave Hailey a wry smile. “But really, it’s rare I get the chance to collaborate with a new spellcaster.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I guess I have to give you the run-down,” Taila said, obviously looking for any excuse to explain. “Spellcasters can do a ton of unique things by combining their talents.”
“What sort of things?”
“Well, for example, if a pyromancer and a cryomancer were to do a ‘collaboration,’ they could make ice-flame.”
“Cryomancer is an ice mage, I assume?”
“Yes. Ice-flame is like fire, but it’s cold.”
“You don’t say.”
“Instead of burning things it crystalizes them.”
“And now I don’t get it again, but it does sound cool.”
Taila raised a finger. “It also happens to be banned by the Terainian Convention for causing incredible collateral damage.”
“Okay, please at least comment on my pun!”
“Most produce unique results that can’t be reproduced in any other way.”
“Please, put ice on the wound, not salt!”
“For example, if a chronomancer and a kinemancer collaborate, they can slow down time for certain objects.”
“You’re so cold,” Hailey said, getting carried away with her puns. “Although…that’s how Kyndl and Kyle stop time?” she asked, referring to a famous celebrity duo.
“Yeah! Just imagine what sort of things I could do if I did my own collab with a witch! It would be the first time in recorded history!”
“That’s impressive, but there are more than a thousand magics. Surely there are plenty of other unique magic users to collab with in our town.”
“First, there are very few other trained mages in our town. Second, witchcraft is known as a versatile magic. Versatile magic can be used in a ton of different ways. It’s usually tough to learn, though. Don’t they teach you this stuff in school?”
“You were homeschooled by a fortune reader. My school might not be good, but at least it doesn’t waste time talking about random magic facts.”
Taila folded her arms. “I feel a little offended.”
“Well, I doubt the school is apologizing.” They arrived on Hailey’s home street.
“Is that her?!” Taila pointed to Kait, who was jogging toward the house.
“Yeah, that’s her.”
Taila started running towards her, waving. “Helllloooo!!”
Once Taila had run far enough away, Hailey muttered to herself, “Is she really that cool?” She let out a pained chuckle. “Gosh, I suck…”