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?”