"My father just told me on Saturday," I said waving my hands in front of me. "Lucas had no idea that his mom was a witch."
The revelation about my mom immediately made Sarah and Chris demand more details from me, but I barely had anything to give. I also realized I had just referred to my past self as 'Lucas' out loud. Replaying the last few words in my head gave me a deep sense of unease. Lucas had never known about his mother's past, and now he never would. My mood slightly soured at the thought, but I quickly shook it off. I could mourn later; I had a pair of very excited friends to attend to instead. We are moving on, silly brain!
"Well, tell us more!" Chris said, barely restraining his volume. I cringed a little. Even in a noisy cafeteria, the secrets of the arcane were not something to shout about.
"A bit quieter please? I know you are desperate to hear more, but I would prefer not to draw too much attention in a public place like this. And, unfortunately, I do not have a lot more details for you all yet. My father and I found a journal, but it is all in shorthand or some weird jargon. There was also a book that—" I narrowly stopped myself from calling it a spellbook, "—was stuffed cover to cover with instructions on how to draw fancy circles and release energy," I said carefully. I realized my description had veered a bit too far into the abstract when Sarah's and Chris's faces each furrowed in confusion.
I sighed.
"In other words, it is a spellbook. We found my mom's spellbook."
"WHAT!?" This time they both yelled. A few students from other tables turned in surprise to gawk at the three of us.
"Can we finish this conversation later? You two seem to have gotten everyone's attention," I said even more quietly while suppressing a giggle.
Sarah and Chris both glanced around and then looked back at me sheepishly. I dragged my lunch tray a little closer and started wolfing down the rest of my food. After a few seconds, Chris and Sarah followed my lead, wary of the eyes on us. I figured our audience would get bored of staring at us eating and stop eavesdropping on us.
Eventually, I figured it had been long enough, and I resumed, "I will do my best to keep it vague, then. I plan to make copies of one of the simpler recipes for you both to try. Transcribing them by hand should help me memorize it, too. After all, going forward this is where most of my," I paused, searching for the right word.
"Training?" Chris offered.
"Sure, yeah. Training. Where most of that will come from. Since I do not have a guardian anymore." My voice trailed off.
"On a related note, I have plans after school on Thursday," Sarah said. "So, we'll need to head over to Chris's tonight and leave our bikes there so they're ready for Friday. Chris, can you drive us home?"
"Yeah, I'm sure my parents won't mind me borrowing one of their cars for an hour or two," Chris said with a shrug.
"Sounds like a plan," Sarah said, turning to me.
"Tonight works. If we plan to meet up after dinner then I should have your copies ready by then," I said with a grin.
"I'm looking forward to not being stuck at home during your adventures," Chris said. "I'm gonna be a—" he started to yell, cutting himself off just in time.
"Just be careful, do not push yourself too hard, okay?" I said nervously. "I honestly have no idea how safe this kind of stuff is for a beginner. Be extremely careful at first and stop if it feels even a little off."
"My, uh," Sarah dwelled on the word for a second and continued, "My friend says that if you're not careful the recipe could start demanding more from you if you exhaust your stored energy."
"What would that look like?" Chris said with a tinge of worry.
"I have no idea, but it's apparently quite painful," Sarah said. "Maybe that's why these skills are not more well known. It seems a bit dangerous to just go in blind."
"I promise I'll be careful." Chris looked positively giddy.
"Wait, Laura, aren't you a novice at all of this, too?" Chris asked.
I blinked. He was right, but it stung for some reason. I shrugged before replying, "I have some kind of inherited experience, I guess?"
The bell sounded and brought an end to lunch and our group met back up in history class. Despite his earlier reaction, Dan was still sitting in his normal seat and only gave me a short glare before resuming his conversation with Chris. As I sat down, I heard Chris end their brief exchange.
"And she's going to give me a copy," Chris said with excitement clear in his voice.
"Oh, you told him, I see," I said, venom lacing my words. I rolled my eyes.
"Did you think that you could pull a fast one on me?" Dan growled. He continued in a lower voice, "Are you sure you want to pull Chris into this mess too?"
"Would you rather have him end up with a spirit in his head?" I hissed quietly. "He is our friend and we should make sure he stays safe. We were all there that night. They are coming for all of us. And unless you can think of something better to protect him from magical foes, what other choice do we have?"
"No. You're right," Dan acquiesced. "This is the only option we have left. But don't think I won't be keeping an eye on you. No more sneaking around."
Surprised by this, I just glared at him for a few seconds until the start bell rang. I turned away, tried to push Dan out of my mind, and focused my attention on the class instead. I was already far enough behind in history as it was. I had only put in about one solid day of studying for this class since I had collapsed from exhaustion on Tuesday. I expected to completely bomb the upcoming test, but it would not set my grade back enough to be worth stressing out over. My study sessions with Chris in homeroom were going well, but I knew they would not be enough. This evening might be my last chance to get some cramming in since our plans for Friday could spiral out to engulf the entire weekend.
When class ended, I got my friends' attention and asked, "Since we are all meeting up tonight, can we fit in a study session for the history test? I still need a lot of help."
"Sounds good to me," Chris said.
"Sure," Sarah said.
"Fine," Dan grunted.
The four of us each split up and headed to our fifth period classes. In Spanish when we were asked to partner up for speech exercises, I picked Eric since he sat right next to me and he seemed eager to pair up. He complimented me on my quick responses, but I laughed and showed him the small talk cheat sheet I was reading off of. As the activity drew to an end, he quickly reminded me in Spanish that he had given me his contact information on Monday. He then turned his eyes down to contemplate his shoes, and I suddenly felt very uneasy. Lucas would have never caused that kind of reaction. I tried to move on as best I could and ignore it. The rest of the class passed by easily enough which meant all that remained of the school day was gym.
Repeating my performance from Monday, I walked as fast as I could to the locker room, got dressed, and exited before I heard another voice. That made it three days in a row without anyone complaining about me being in there. The fact that I had never allowed another soul to actually see me using the locker room might have had something to do with it.
Tommy's two friends who had cornered me on Monday were still hanging around the main gymnasium, but they seemed to be actively ignoring me. Tommy himself did not show his face. He must have gotten suspended for the entire week. I was really not looking forward to his reappearance. The class was back to running laps today, but thankfully this time no one interrupted me. Unfortunately, jogging with my hair loose caused it to behave as a rogue mess once again. It was constantly getting into my face as I ran laps; it was not an enjoyable experience. I really needed to remember to pick up a scrunchie or hair clip.
After an uneventful bus ride home, I saw a note stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet:
"I'll be home late again tonight. There are burrito shells and fillings in the fridge. The ground beef is already cooked, just throw it in the microwave. I love you – Dad"
The clock on the oven stated the time was just after three in the afternoon. Plenty of time to get some homework done before I rode over to Chris's house. I set to work to copy the 'Deflection Ward' page in my mother's notebook for everyone since I had promised to make them at lunch. There was no way I was going to risk bringing the entire original set of notes. With the threats as serious as they were, I figured we should all start trying to supplement our guardian derived magic with witchcraft and anything else we could get our hands on.
The first copy I made was crude. The spell circle was a bit misshapen and while reading it over I even noticed a few missing words in the instructions. I sort of haphazardly shoved corrections in the margin with an arrow pointing to the relevant sections. My second and third copies were much better, with the third one being nearly perfect. I decided to give my rough draft to Dan. That would show him. I hoped he enjoyed puzzling over that mess. I set aside my neatest copy for Chris in case he decided to try the spell tonight. I really wanted to see him attempt it. After seeing him stand up for me against Dan, the idea of leaving him out felt especially awful. Giving him a fighting chance to become a magic user was the least I could do.
I then shifted my focus to the rest of my homework. I set the timer on the oven for five o'clock, carefully avoiding the button that turned on the heat. I did not want to lose track of time.
-*-
Words from the novel 1984 floated in front of my eyes as I distantly heard a loud beeping noise coming from the kitchen. For the last several minutes the paragraphs had been melting together in my vision, and I had barely understood any of the words. The thought of sharing some of my family's magic with my friends had been far too exciting for me to focus on anything else. And I doubted I was going to make any more progress on homework after I got home from studying at Chris's house. I was going to be way too mentally exhausted. At least I still had tomorrow to finish it all. Most of it was due on Friday.
Thankful for any distraction from the dreary novel, I quickly ran over to shut off the timer. Then I pulled all the burrito ingredients out of the refrigerator. After I loosened the top on the ground beef I threw it in the microwave to reheat it. While I waited, I stared at the note my father had left me.
"You really need to quit that job," I mumbled to the empty house. "Why do you let them do this to you every single week?"
There had to be some sort of way to convince my father to just refuse to work overtime. Especially since it was often unpaid! Maybe I could figure out a way to make some money with arcane weirdness? Then he would not feel so afraid of losing his job. Most of the spells I could easily recall from my shallow dive into Aurora's memories were all combat related and did not seem to have other applications. What could I even do with a magically sharp ice sword other than slice magical opponents? She had to have some more versatile tricks up her sleeves.
The loud beeping from the microwave pulled me out of my churning thoughts.
I pushed my father's job and the looming homework from my mind and made a pair of burritos. My hunger suddenly overwhelmed me, and I quickly devoured my creations. The dinner I had skipped last night was finally catching up with me. The hollow feeling in my stomach compelled me to make a third burrito before I put the rest of the food back in the refrigerator.
As I ate, my mind wandered back to yesterday and my patchwork of memories left over from my day-long sleepy haze. Why had I been so tired? Monday had been my first day back at school after everything that happened on Friday.
No, that was not quite right. Monday had been my first day at school ever.
My extensive memories of high school and mental preparation for its daily routines did not matter. I was only prepared to attend as Lucas, not as me. My—that is Laura's—experiences at school had already been quite a bit different from Lucas's peaceful ones. Nothing could have prepared me for the sudden vitriol that had been directed my way. Even though it had been the work of only a few incredibly awful people, it had still felt like half the school had turned against me. Could the sheer stress from that day have completely exhausted me during the next?
Maybe not. I also had used magic on Monday. Twice. Lucas and Aurora had summoned arcane ice weapons during their fight last Friday, but those spells had felt effortless compared to the emergency ice sheet I had created in gym. At the time I had not considered how much arcane energy I was burning through. It had been sloppy and fast, but it had also been my only option that did not involve skewering someone. When Dan had cornered me before lunch I had almost done that. Creating that icicle had felt crisp and smooth, only requiring a minuscule force of will applied to make it happen.
I decided that I would need to be more careful about throwing around unpracticed magic in the future. For now, I felt well rested and, thanks to my father's food preparation, very full. I was looking forward to showing my friends the spell instructions. I was nearly jumping at anticipation of seeing how they would react to a new way to use magic, and I was especially glad I could finally include Chris.
The bike ride over to Chris's house would have been relaxing except the wind tonight was fierce. The gusts were noticeably pushing on me while I pedaled, and the chill March air was starting to make its way through the sweatshirt I had thrown on. When I rounded the last turn, my fingers were starting to feel a bit numb on the handlebar grips. I gently parked my bike with the three others inside the garage and rushed in to warm my hands. It seemed that even with an affinity for ice magic the cold could still get to me.
"Hey, Chris!" I called as I opened the door in the garage which led into the main house.
I could hear Dan and Sarah talking in the living room, so I headed there and took a seat on one of the unoccupied couches after removing my backpack. Chris came in from the kitchen, walked past me to the garage and closed the door. After a moment he joined me on the couch. I had a sudden sense of déjà vu.
"You're last, again. Really dedicated to keeping that biggest slowpoke title, aren't you?" he said with a laugh.
"Huh?" I asked.
"You were the last one here on Friday, too. Kinda thought you weren't gonna show that time. At least we were only standing around for a few minutes this time," Chris answered with a grin.
"Oh," I mumbled and looked downwards at my feet.
My eyes landed on the spot where I took my first breath.
Everything else faded to a blur around me as my hands clenched around the edge of the seat cushion and goosebumps shot across my skin. That was the place where I became myself and where Lucas and Aurora ceased to exist. I had laid there staring at the ceiling less than a week ago. I reached down briefly and brushed my fingers across the gaudy purple rug. This feeling that I was somehow both only four days old and eighteen years old at the same time cut me directly to my core. How was I even functional? How had I managed to talk or go to school for multiple days in a row? I could feel my mouth going dry and my breathing becoming very shallow.
After what felt like an eternity, I regained my faculties.
I looked over at Chris and carefully asked, "What were we just talking about?"
"I was just having a bit of fun, don't worry about it. I'm not actually upset at you for being a little late," Chris looked apologetic and for a split second his eyes darted to the spot on the rug I had been caressing. "My parents won't be home until late. They're at some sort of dinner event for work or something."
After setting my history notes off to the side, I pulled out the pages I had transcribed. I handed one to each of them and said, "You might find this interesting."
"Deflection Ward? What is this?" Dan said as I handed him the rough copy.
"Something I found in my mother's notes. Before we leave, maybe one of you could try it out," I offered.
"Absolutely, but not until we get you up to speed in history!" Chris said, waving his notes. "I really appreciate the spell instructions, Laura, but first let's make sure you still can graduate high school."
"Oh? Surely you have more faith in me than that," I muttered.
"Well," he replied, "You did say you had no memories of the class at all. That's going to be rough during finals." My only response was to sigh; he was right.
We spent the next two hours going over our notes from the start of the year.
-*-
Chris was itching to perform the spell, but he did an admirable job of keeping us on track studying history for the full time he allocated. His entire demeanor changed to excitement when he finally snapped the textbook closed and he began poring over his copy of the instructions.
Chris did not want to mark up his parents' furniture, so he found a large cardboard packing box and sliced a flat square out of it. Then he placed the layer of sacrificial material on the table in the living room. Chris found an unused carton of birthday candles to use for the ritual at the back of one of the cabinets in the kitchen. The instructions also called for a piece of metal, preferably steel or iron and weighing about half a pound. For this, Chris grabbed an unused shelving angle bracket in the garage. After consulting with Corona, she approved of the materials, though she admitted that this was not her specialty. Dan adamantly refused to allow Chromos to wake up to provide a second opinion.
"Laura, are you sure you copied these instructions correctly? You have 'pentagon' written here, but did you mean 'pentagram'?" Sarah said while squinting at one of the copies.
"The diagram shows a pentagon right? The five-sided shape? By vertex I think my mom meant the points where it touches the outer circle." I replied.
"The intersections? That makes sense to me. Matches the diagram too. To correctly inscribe this pentagon on the circle I'll need a compass. I think I remember the construction method for a regular pentagon from geometry class. I need to get a few things from the garage," Chris rambled as he walked out of the room.
"Of course Chris would remember how to make a perfect pentagon," Dan laughed.
"Constructions in geometry were always kind of pretty, I miss that unit," Sarah said while looking down at the blank cardboard.
"Hopefully it is okay that I did not bother to use a compass to draw the diagrams on those copies. I figured just free handing them would be fine. I am not sure how perfect it needs to be for the spell to work," I said while reviewing Chris's copy.
When Chris returned, he was holding a metal triangle ruler and a huge wooden compass.
"I can't believe you have one of those. It looks exactly like the one that the geometry teacher used on the blackboard," Dan laughed. "Wait, did you nick it?"
Chris shrugged innocently.
Armed with the appropriate tools from the garage, Chris marked a center point on the cardboard, drew the outer circle, and then carefully constructed a pentagon intersecting the circle at each corner of the shape. We carefully checked that the diagram matched the instructions. I cautiously poked holes for the candles to rest in and placed one at each of the five points. Sarah lit the candles with a kitchen lighter and now all the circle needed was a small pulse of energy to start the spell.
"So, are we ready?" Chris asked.
"Corona said it should work, go right ahead," I said, motioning to the circle.
Chris leaned forward while still sitting on couch and touched the edge of the pattern inscribed on the cardboard with both his hands.
"Um, now what?" he glanced between me and Sarah, a bewildered expression growing on his face.
"Corona, this is all you," Sarah's normal voice began. Then as Corona began speaking through Sarah and her voice's pitch and timbre changed subtly, "The sensation is always subtle and at first nearly indiscernible. Cease all physical motion. You must force the flow from the edges of your perception. Focus carefully and push your will outward. Seize the arcane and bring it under your will."
"That is better advice than I would have given. I just sort of do it," I shrugged. Dan made a dismissive snort from across the room and I turned to my right to look directly at him, "What?"
"Never mind," he said staring directly at me. He turned slightly and said to Chris, "Go ahead."
Chris's face relaxed and he took several slow deep breaths as he tried to focus. I felt a tiny vibration in the hairs on my arms, but I had a feeling it was but some sort of arcane pulse rather than a breeze. I held my breath, fearing that the slightest sound might break Chris's concentration. The buzzing sensation slowly built, but then after a few seconds it started to weaken.
"Keep going. You had it," I breathed.
"I did? I couldn't feel anything at all," he replied.
"Just go back to whatever you were doing like eight seconds ago," I pressed.
"I'm just not sure what I was doing," Chris muttered. Despite his uncertainty, he had already closed his eyes and started a second attempt. His forehead wrinkled with concentration.
The thrumming resumed and quickly grew in intensity.
"Keep doing that, you are almost there," I said in a near whisper.
I could feel the intensity build until it shifted to an audible hum. It must have been an actual physical noise rather than some inherited sense from Aurora because Sarah's and Dan's eyes widened and they both leaned forward.
"That should be enough," Corona said through Sarah.
Chris's fingers slowly retreated from the cardboard. As they left the circle, the hum ceased, the candles extinguished themselves as they melted rapidly into puddles of wax, and the bit of scrap metal in the center began to glow an ominous dull red. The circle was thrumming with the power of a spell ready to be harnessed.
"Now, seize the result of your efforts," Corona said with a hint of delight.
I picked up one of the copies of the recipe I had made and carefully read the last few lines aloud, "Touch the circle once again and apply its energies to your skin, somewhere you can easily check by touch. When the spell is expended, it will simply dissipate. Since this is a defensive spell, knowing when it is consumed is vital."
Chris eagerly touched the circle again with his left hand and, in a rapid motion, slapped it to his right arm with a terrific smack.
"Ow," Chris's voice croaked.
"Are you okay? Why did you hit yourself so hard?" I asked, surprised.
"Whatever it was—the spell or energy—felt like it was going to burn through my skin. I wanted to get it off my fingers as fast as possible. It seems fine now though?" He gently touched the spot on his wrist where he had planted the ward. "I can sort of tell it's there, I guess. But it's so faint."
"Now, be careful. Your first cast will have sapped your strength considerably. Though I must also congratulate you: the precision of the spell circle you constructed significantly increased your likelihood of success." Corona spoke through Sarah.
"Oh, yeah. I see what you-" Chris began, but before he could even finish his sentence, his voice trailed off, and he slumped forward. I moved rapidly in a near panic and grabbed Chris's shoulders to prevent him from tumbling face-first off the couch.
"Chris!" I exclaimed, but he was already unconscious. I hastily moved to check his vital signs, but I relaxed when I saw the gentle rise and fall of his chest. "He's breathing."
I carefully coaxed him into a resting position on the couch before getting up and putting a pillow under his head.
"He will recover in time. He must regenerate his arcane stores. He should awaken in an hour or two," Corona said through Sarah's lips. She had spoken the words straight into my right ear. I had been so focused on checking Chris that I had not realized Sarah and Dan were now standing right next to me.
I gave Dan a wary look. Was he about to blame me for this too? Dan noticed I was staring at him and his face softened.
"Relax, Laura," Dan said. "I'm not going to blame you."
"Oh," I said. I relaxed and looked back to Chris now laying across his side of the couch.
"Chromos assured me that Chris would be okay. I could tell he wasn't lying," Dan grunted.
"Oh, so now you are willing to consult and trust him," I muttered quietly.
The spell had been successfully cast at least. Hopefully with practice Chris could develop more 'magical endurance', but I had no idea if such a thing could be trained.
"I sort of felt something while he was trying to jump-start the circle's magic," I said turning to Sarah. "Could our enemies have sensed that too? Did we just give ourselves away?"
"This structure and perhaps just outside it would be the maximum distance that sensation would propagate. Unless, of course, our foes are wielding magic specifically made for detecting spells. However, those are highly directional. They would have to already know where we are in order to be effective," Corona answered.
While I was consulting with Sarah and her guardian, Dan began to impatiently tap his foot.
"Guess we're stuck here until Sleeping Beauty wakes up. Hope he's in good enough shape to drive us all home after his power nap," he said with a shrug. "God, I hope this wasn't a mistake," he added under his breath.
"Wanna watch a movie while we wait?" Sarah said as she walked over to her backpack and pulled out three different VHS tapes.
"I will get some water and snacks for when Chris wakes up," I said as I walked unsteadily into the kitchen.
I was able to put together a tray of refreshments pretty quickly. Chris's fridge was quite well stocked despite how little time his parents spent at home.
"Corona says he'll be fine, Laura. Don't worry about it too much," Sarah said as I returned.
"I really hope so," I said somberly. I was not convinced.