Chapter 7 #2
“Forgive me, I’m not explaining this right.
It’s been so long since I’ve taught a young mage, I think I’ve forgotten how.
” Lisette took a moment, breathing in and rephrasing things.
“Mages require magical elements in order to do any working. We build our spells, enchantments, and potions much like you would build a machine. It all has its own design, its own elements, and it has to be a cohesive force in order for it to work. Our magic is used to tie it all together and put it in motion.”
Cameron ate the last bite of potato pancake, chewing on both her words and the food. “So, say that I want to build a vehicle. I’d design it, gather the materials for it, and then I would use magic to assemble it?”
“Precisely. And drive it, presumably, but you take my point. We use many, many elements in order to build spells. Some elements don’t work with others. Some do. Build too lopsided of a spell, it will collapse and backfire. Or just fail to function.”
Cameron had always felt that because magic had never come to him before, because he’d never felt anything else but human, it wasn’t his.
He’d often tried yelling made up magical incantations or mixing random things together as a kid, waiting for something magical to happen.
Even in his make-believe, he’d kept hoping.
Until hope couldn’t stand in the face of no results.
It was why he’d gone the more practical route of engineering.
But from what Lisette said, it only made sense he’d been unable to do anything. Or feel anything. Of course he hadn’t, he hadn’t been in the right environment for it. Hadn’t possessed the necessary tools.
But it also harkened back to a time when he was very, very young. The memory was hazy, a little golden and fuzzy around the edges, worn by time and a youthful mind that didn’t comprehend what he was seeing. But it was there, half-recalled.
“When I was about six, I was at my great-grandmother’s house.
It was the last summer before she died. I remember sitting in the kitchen with her, and she was mixing something at the table.
In a bowl, the bowl she used for kimchi, though it didn’t smell like it.
I asked what she was doing. She winked and said she was making something for her old bones.
And she kept putting in strange things—drops from stoppered glass bottles lined up on the table.
One of them glowed, softly, like the light from a firefly.
There were pristine snowflakes in the other, despite the fact it was high June.
The last was so bright I couldn’t look at it directly and it felt warm, like I was standing in a sunny spot. She drank it after she mixed it.”
Lisette’s expression lit up. “That was a working. She was potion-making, and it sounds like something for arthritis.”
“Oh. Yeah, her knees were bad by that point. Her hands, too.”
“So magic was practiced in your house?” Lisette asked intently, leaning forward.
“No, not at all,” Cameron denied with a shake of the head.
“It was rare to see anything like that from my great-grandmother. She was nervous about doing that kind of thing in front of people, rarely let even anyone in the family see it. She was a touch out of it at the end of her life. Eomma…er...my mother said she had Alzheimer’s.
I think she wasn’t as cautious that day.
But my grandmother was never taught anything by her mother.
My parents don’t really believe we have magic at all. ”
Lisette winced. “Knowledge is so quickly lost in a family. It only takes three generations.”
“That’s what Alric said. It certainly did in mine.
” Cameron set the tray further aside, freeing up his hands and lap.
It bought him a second to think. Lisette’s explanation made sense of things, sure, but he didn’t really feel it yet.
Feel connected to what she was saying. Didn’t magic require at least some belief?
Cassie, yes, he could see his sister working magic left, right, and center.
Halmeoni would be right there with her. But him?
Frankly, if proving he was a mage depended on him working a spell, they were all screwed. He had no faith he could do it.
“Lisette, is there some way you can prove if I’m a mage or not? I know the dragons smell magic on me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I can work magic, right?”
“Fortunately, I anticipated you’d ask this question.
Baldewin and Alric both said that you’re struggling with this.
” She pulled her vest around and dipped her hand into a pocket.
“I have here a device we use to detect magic in people. We use it for children so that we can readily discover the ones who need to be taught. It’s incredibly easy to use and one hundred percent accurate. ”
“A magic litmus test?”
“That’s a good way to think of it. You’re either one or the other, young man.
Magic or not. There’s no in-between on this.
” She pulled out a small, triangular-shaped stone wrapped in three different types of wire.
It hung from her hand on a leather thong.
It looked like a cross between a steampunk fashion accessory and something a hippie would wear, as the wire didn’t just cross but had curves and designs in it much like a schematic would.
And it glowed softly, a light all of its own.
“So how do I use it?” Cameron stared at it intently. He’d seen this very thing before. It escaped his immediate memory of where, though. Recently. Here, in Germany. Was he at the festival…? No, that didn’t sound quite right.
“Just put it into your hand.”
He reached for it, and she dropped it into his open palm. It barely touched skin before it flared a bright green, as bright as any LED flashlight. Cameron almost dropped it in surprise. “Whoa!”
“Well now. I think that’s a pretty definitive answer.” Lisette had the gall to look smug and not at all surprised.
Cameron stared at the stone in his hand, and he had to swallow twice before he could find words. Wha…no, seriously? The person who didn’t believe magic was a real thing anymore, who would have sworn three days ago it was a thing of the past, was a mage? “Seriously?!”
Lisette threw her head back and laughed, the sound a little scratchy but warm. “Ah, I should have taken a picture of your face. Such a Kodak moment!”
“No, but…seriously?!” Cameron felt his view of himself turn in a dizzying spin off to an angle.
It wasn’t that this was upsetting—far from it.
Part of Cameron was absolutely delighted.
And incredulous. Possibly a little shock mixed in there.
All of those childhood dreams rushed back, and it set up something of a dissonance.
Cameron’s mind kept flipping between elation and skepticism.
“Adjust, Cameron. You’re a mage. You’re quite obviously a mage.”
His mouth irreverently blurted, “Oh god, Halmeoni’s never going to let me live this down. She’s sworn for years Cassie and I are mages, and I kept telling her she was crazy, and she’s never going to let me forget this.”
“I certainly wouldn’t.” Lisette’s grin might have been a bit evil. “Now, give that back. I just so happened to bring a magic primer with me, a beginner’s textbook, if you will. Don’t you want to start learning?”
Now wasn’t that a ridiculous question. But then, she’d known full well he was a mage, probably at their first meeting, as brief as that was.
Of course she’d come prepared. Cameron was torn between wanting to sleep on it all and give his brain a chance to process it, and learning magic. Currently, learning magic was winning.
Curiosity. It did him in every time.
But as he handed the triangle back to her, he looked at it again, and the memory came back in a rush. “Lisette. I want to learn, but…I’ve seen that before.”
Her hand closed over both the triangle and his fingers, keeping him locked in place. Her eyes sharpened on his face. “Where? When?”
“Recently, actually. The hotel I’m staying at, I was crossing through the lobby and a guy was wearing it around his neck. It glowed like that, too.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Eh…not really? It was in passing; the guy had bumped into me by accident, I barely looked at his face. I just remember the triangle because it was a cool design and it was glowing, and I couldn’t immediately figure out why.
It wasn’t like those battery-operated necklaces.
” Cameron frowned at the triangle, and she let go of his fingers, taking it fully back and putting it in her pocket once more.
“You said the dragons are looking for mages constantly. Is anyone else?”
“Not that I’m aware of. But someone clearly is if they have this. And it might explain why someone tried to take you today.”
That triangle took on a whole new meaning. “Because they detected I’m a mage? Damn. I’m not so happy about that.”
A dark cloud swept over Lisette’s face, as if she contemplated mayhem on some level. “Neither am I. Let me teach you some of the basics of spellcraft, young mage. I think you’ll need that sooner than later.”
“Yeah. I, uh, suddenly think that learning magic is a great idea.” Part of Cameron was still wrapping his head around the idea of him doing magic.
That part would have to get over itself.
He had too much proof that he was a mage.
It was time to accept it and move forward.
Only one problem that he could see (aside from accidentally setting something on fire or blowing it up). “Shouldn’t I report to Alric, though?”
“We will,” Lisette assured him. “But later. I’ll tell Baldewin tonight so that we’re more prepared. Right now, let me teach you. Leaving you ignorant is the worst possible choice at the moment.”
If he’d known magic when they tried to kidnap him earlier, Cameron would have been better equipped to fight them off. Alric wouldn’t have re-injured himself. Hell, he might have caught the bad guys and saved themselves the headache of wondering who was after him. Lisette had a good point.
Magic lesson first.