Sable chuckled at my attempt to dissuade mom from coming here to fight her. “You let me worry about the duel. You focus on training. I suppose the first thing you should do today is pick up a spell or two you can use in combat.”
That sounded good to me. “Oh, like, a Fireball or a Lightning Bolt, or… well I guess I’m just starting off. Is there, like, a Magic Missile?”
“Well, you’re not wrong, there are battle magic spells like that. But those would generally be wizard spells.”
“Okay… so what kind of battle magic do witches use?”
She frowned and said, “Witch magic tends to be more indirect. We don’t have a lot of big flashy direct attacks like wizards do. Illusions, manipulations, transmutations, curses, and medicine. It’s not a hard and fast rule by any means, but if you crack open a witch’s spell book, that’s likely what you’ll find, if they even have spells beyond practical magic.”
“Really? Taliornen said male and female magic could achieve the same effects, like with Control Flame.”
”And he’s not wrong. It’s just a cultural tendency, but the fact is that writing a new spell is complex, and there’s not much call for wizard-style battle magic in the modern world, really. Wizards mainly keep that up for glorified dick-wagging contests. When witches do battle in the outside world, we usually want to keep it quiet. Explosions draw attention.”
“So I can’t explode things because I’m a girl? That’s lame,” I said.
“I didn’t say that. You can do anything you want to. You can learn to fling fireballs at least as well as wizards can, if that’s your jam. You just won’t find that kind of spell in most modern witch spell books. Once you learn enough about runes, you can make any spell you want, though translating an existing wizard spell would likely be easier.”
“Is there a patriarchy or something I should blame about this, like with pockets?” I asked, looking for someone to blame.
“Well, yes, sort of. Thank the fine folks worldwide who brought us witch hunts, witch trials, that sort of thing. Technically speaking wizards would get caught up in those too, but they mostly target women. Find an old enough spell book and you might find something that goes boom, though most of those were burned.”
“Ah, yeah, I was wondering if that affected actual witches.”
”Yeah, though more non-witches, of course. Either way, it impacted the culture of witch spells. On Earth, anyway. You could probably go through the portal and trade spells with a witch over there. They have a much different culture around battle magic, I hear, given all the big nasty monsters they have.”
“Well that sounds good, but they’re all on the other side of the manticore… wait, don’t you also have big nasty monsters here that kind of magic would be useful for?”
Sable nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true. The Ward family’s version of battle magic is ‘make strong familiars and have them go fight while you back them up’. Though, I’ve got some spells that are a little unusual. They’re meant for familiars like yourself to use.”
She waved a hand at the bookshelf, and a book responded, flying to her grasp. It landed with a poof of dust, which she blew at and waved away.
“This book belonged to my grandma’s familiar. She used it early on when they’d just started exploring the other side. It’s dangerous over there, so it should have something you can use. There’s some normal witch spells you might find useful, plus some aimed more at fighting directly.”
I flipped through the old, well-worn pages, browsing through the first tier spell options. I only had one spell sigil right now, a fairly simple one. I could probably only prepare a few spells sigils at once, at best. I’d need to make them count. Something I could use to fight a manticore.
The first thing I noticed was this was definitely a personal item. None of the spells had descriptions, just a single-word name, a sigil and maybe a cryptic note or two.
Pass. Hide. Bolster. Blink. I guess Bolster sounded like it was some kind of boost but had no notes at all. Was Hide for stealth? What about Blink? Did Pass let you get through something?
“Yeah, I think those were Great Aunt Minerva custom jobs. She wasn’t great about writing stuff down, so it’ll be tough to know what they do without trying them,” Sable noted.
Well, if they were specifically for familiars, then trying them all out was probably a good idea. I could compare them to some normal spells later once I figured out what these did.
After spending the rest of the morning preparing their sigils, I was ready to try them out. I had to drop Control Flame to be able to maintain all four familiar spells, but it would probably be worth it. When was I gonna need to light a candle in combat?
With my new spells prepared, it was time to try them out, maybe do a little battle practice. I found Lyris sitting on the couch apparently watching a video, the voice coming from the device smooth and friendly.
“...if you liked this video and would like to see more like it, please subscribe, and as always, have a nice day. Thank you.”
She smiled as she saw me approach and swiped the app away before setting the device down. I was impressed by how quickly she’d learned to use the thing, but it seemed she was pretty smart.
“Ah, I recognize that sign-off. Good channel. Learning anything?”
“Yes, on my world magic is commonly used where your people would instead use technology, so it is very interesting to see what clever people without magic come up with. As I am unable to use magic myself due to my familiar contract, I find this inspiring.”
“That’s pretty cool. Maybe you’ll learn about machines the way I’m learning about magic. Speaking of which, I’ve learned some spells specifically for familiar battling, so I’d like to try them out with you, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course. Perhaps if he sees the potential in this, Taliornen will consider modifying my contract to allow something similar…”
We went outside, staying well away from the backyard gate. It would be my first time casting spells other than Control Flame. While that was also technically first tier, it was basically baby’s first spell, so it was far simpler than any of the ones I’d prepared now.
“Okay, gonna try one called ‘Pass’. Dunno what any of these do, by the way, so let’s hold off on sparring until I’ve cast each one once.”
Lyris nodded her agreement and I tried focusing on the Pass sigil within me, pushing mana through it. Almost immediately, I felt something seemingly snap and fizzle, and the sigil faltered.
“Shit. Think I broke it…”
Bringing the Pass sigil out, I could see a connection had in fact burnt out. A rune had popped, leaving jagged lines of disconnected mana in its place. Examining further, I saw several other points in the sigil looked like they’d weakened. Lyris approached and looked carefully at the burned-out sigil.
She began lecturing me, apparently trying to take the friendly but informative tone of the YouTube personality she’d just been watching. “You must learn to control your mana output. Casting a spell sigil requires focus and precision. Additionally, your mana lines are sloppy. Draw them with more precision next time. In fact, here, use this.”
She carefully selected, then plucked, a flight feather from her wing before handing it to me. “Filling a quill with your mana will allow you to draw more precisely than using your finger.”
I looked at the gift, feeling kind of honored. “Thank you, I’ll, uh, treasure it? But before I sit down to try to repair this, let’s see if I can make any of these work properly.”
Next up, I tried Hide, trying to channel much more lightly, slowly, and deliberately. I got a fuzzy feeling across my body as I carefully brought the spell up to the maximum amount of mana I felt I could put through it.
Lyris was looking my way with a mixture of concern and surprise.
“Well, am I hidden?”
“No… no, you are not.”
Looking down, I was surprised to see a thick layer of black fur had grown in over my skin. I looked at myself incredulously, while Lyris came close and started petting my arm.
“Very soft, and thick. I like it.”
“Uh… not a fan myself, not in this weather anyway. But I think I figured this one out. It’s not Hide as in hidden, it’s hide as in… animal hide. Probably for defense. Could you try cutting me? Gently please.”
She drew a knife and tried pressing the blade against my fur, which seemed to resist it, not cutting.
“Hmm,” she said, somewhat impressed, “let’s see how well this works.”
Lyris drew her arm back, then suddenly slashed the knife across my arm.
I winced as I felt a little pain, though not as much as I expected. “Ow.”
Inspecting the site, we determined it hadn’t been cut, but I felt a little bruised. Lyris was stronger than a normal girl, and apparently hadn’t held back.
“Well that’s… handy. Don’t want to get slapped by a manticore, but if this’ll keep me from getting ripped up by a slash, I guess it’s worth looking a little ridiculous.”
Then she stabbed my arm with the tip. There was some resistance, but the tip slipped through the fur and drew blood.
“OW FUCK”
“It would seem it is less effective against piercing attacks. I would also expect bludgeons to work fairly well,” she said, digging out a healing potion.
I stopped channeling mana into the sigil and the fur dissipated, which was a relief. Okay, it seemed to have some niche use, but cat fur conjured by a first tier spell seemed a bit underwhelming overall. Better than nothing against a manticore, but between its claws, teeth, and scorpion tail I doubt it would be the level of protection I’d like.
Letting Sable cast some sort of protection spell would likely be more effective, but until I found something else I’d rather prepare I might as well keep it handy.
For the rest of the afternoon, I practiced my various new spells in combat scenarios with Lyris, trying to see how long I could maintain my mana output and avoid breaking my sigils.
While I seemed to have good instincts in general from my cat spirit, Luna, I had to practice them to turn those instincts into actual experience. I found Luna even seemed to have instincts about using these spells in combat, but learning to trust them and strategize around what my body and mind could and couldn’t do took time.
As I trained, I grew more aware of Luna’s presence within me, and gradually came to understand which actions and even feelings seemed to come from her. The presence of her spirit affected me in ways that I was only starting to understand.
Once I’d finally pushed all my sigils to their limits and rendered them unusable, it was time to go back inside.
Sable was working on something on her laptop, but shut it when we returned.
“Hey you two, you seem like you’ve put in a lot of work. How’d it go?”
Lyris answered for me. “Morgan has made good progress. At least some of her new spells seem quite applicable to combat, and she moves like she knows how to use them. Though, I have doubts at how applicable they are to fighting a manticore.”
“Yeah, and I broke all my sigils. Gonna need a walkthrough on fixing them.”
Sable smirked. “Alright, sounds like good progress. Learning how they break is important. Did any of them fail dramatically?”
“Uh, no, they all just kind of fizzled. Is that a thing?”
“Sometimes, yeah. Usually they’ll just burn out a few runes and stop working. But especially with more complex sigils, burning out in just the wrong way can be problematic. Don’t worry about it too much, just know things can go wrong, and try to stay focused when using them.”
After dinner (yet more cockatrice leftovers) I got the tutorial on how to repair my sigils, and spent the evening unwinding with my… coven, I guess. Watching TV in the living room, while I practiced repairing and improving the sigils with my raven quill, Sable kept idly working on something on her laptop, and Lyris stared at the screen with rapt attention as we played episodes of Star Trek for her. Original series.
I’d wanted to ease her into the idea of fiction. Sable mainly thought it’d be funny to see how she reacts to Mr. Spock.
After the episode, she sat back, blown away. “Incredible. To think that humans have explored the stars, met myriad unknown races, even a space-faring elf variant… I had no idea this was possible with technology.”
“Lyris… that was fiction,” I tried, curious if she even had the concept.
“Fiction?” she said, rolling the word around in her mouth, the translation effect of our marriage bond providing the idea. “A falsehood? A story made of intentional falsehoods? How strange…”
“It’s for entertainment. It’s not intended as a deception. Just to tell a story that couldn’t be told with only things that have actually happened. Do you not have this sort of thing on your world?” I replied.
“I do not believe so. We have stories where exaggerations occur, or details are carefully omitted. But they are all still based on real events. We do have writings where potential futures and hypothetical situations are described, but they are not presented as the stories of people who do not exist. It is a strange concept to us.”
Sable spoke up without looking up from her laptop. “I thought that might be the case. Grandma used to warn me that elves didn’t lie, but still used deception in other forms.”
“Exactly, yes. My people cannot easily say things that we know to be untrue.”
“Really? Could you try? Tell us a lie,” Sable said, finally looking up with interest.
Lyris looked uncertain, clearly grappling with what she could lie about.
“Uh… what’s your favorite food?” I asked as a suggestion.
She scrunched up her face and tried to do it. “My favorite food is… is…”
Lyris was clearly straining to get this out, as though it were a mental strain to even consider this. She looked down at her plate of mostly-finished leftovers on the coffee table. “…cockatrice,” she finished, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Huh, so you can do it, it’s just… really obvious. Okay, good to know you’re generally being sincere with us.”
Sable tapped her chin, thinking. “Do elves have theater where you act out characters in a story?”
“Y-yes,” she said, looking a bit uncertain. “While we cannot easily lie, we can act out the truth of another.” She then stood and faced me, taking an oddly assertive stance, leaning in close, tilting my chin up.
“You are part of this coven now, Galadria, and I expect you to behave like it. The first rule is that you serve our mistress’s desires before all others. The second rule is that you also serve my desires, and when I tell you to, the desires of the other coven members.”
It was a line I’d read from that damn witch smut, acted out in a sultry manner. I felt myself blushing despite myself. “Uh, that’s, good. What about writing? Could you write things that are false?”
She considered this. “Write a false story? Intentionally? Why would I do that?”
Sable tried leading her to it. “Did you enjoy the story we just watched?”
“Yes, at the time, though once I found out it was false, I felt betrayed by the actors.”
“They weren’t trying to deceive you. Fiction is an accepted art form here, and humans generally recognize it when they see it, at least when presented like this. It’s theater meant to entertain and inspire with how the world could be, instead of how the world is.”
Lyris seemed to consider this, furrowing her eyebrows. “How the world could be? Hmm… I could try… writing such things. But my handwriting would likely give away the deception, as I cannot write such a thing with a steady hand.”
Sable passed her the iPad that Lyris had been using earlier, unfolding its keyboard. “Then use this.”
Realization seemed to dawn on her face. It might be difficult to think of fictions to write, but if she typed them out, nobody would be able to tell that she had trouble with it, so long as the words flowed well when read.
We resumed watching Star Trek shortly thereafter, and Lyris watched it with new eyes. I felt a curiosity and wonder from her across the link. I wondered if teaching an elf to write fiction was really a good idea, but watching her expand her horizons felt good.
When we went to our rooms to sleep that night, I got to sleep alone. Lyris stayed in her room, typing something out on her iPad. I could tell she was feeling frustration, but also a form of exhilaration.
I wondered what she could be writing as I drifted off to sleep.