New and Old

I stood in the open field of the Pocket with my eyes closed, breathing deeply in and out. “Good,” Granny said, her voice still firm despite her age. “Allow the Expanse to enter into you, but do not let it be your master! The Expanse is your birthright.”

The Expanse felt like an entire ocean contained inside my heart, like the air in my lungs was alive. It was like the entire world was before me. I was unlimited. I had learned to open myself to the Expanse as a small child, so I should be used to the sensation by now. But the sensation was always new; always invigorating.

“Stop.” Granny’s sharp command was the signal for me to open my eyes. I let the Expanse leave me, returning me to the reality: the perpetually grey skies and walls of the Pocket, the bizarre organic-appearing architecture, and the growl of my stomach.

“Well?” Granny asked. “Hoho, how was your meditation today?”

“The same as every day, Granny,” I said.

“Hmph. You’re getting bored of doing daily meditation exercises?” I didn’t say anything, but the answer must have been written on my face, because she let out a huff. “This generation, I do swear. In my day, patience was a virtue among mages. Patience!”

“Yes, Granny.” I didn’t actually roll my eyes—she would see—but I did it mentally. Ok, maybe I rolled my eyes in reality a little bit too.

But to my surprise, Granny let out a little laugh. “I suppose it can’t be helped. Times are different. The Empire was never so harsh…ah, the ramblings of an old woman.”

“You’re not old, Granny! You’re young in spirit!”

She smiled. “Hoho, quite a charmer, aren’t you? All right.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “What do you say I teach you a new spell? From another domain, no less?”

“Really?!” I let out a little fist-pump of excitement.

Granny smiled, nodded, then stood back up and began speaking in her teacher voice. “Now tell me. What domains sit adjacent to Space magic?”

“Spirit on the left, and Life on the right.” My answer flowed easily from my lips. From childhood, every mage knew the 8 domains of magic.

“And what does it mean to have an adjacent domain?”

“Every mage can most easily learn spells of their natural affinity. But good mages can also learn spells from affinities close to theirs. Adjacent ones are the easiest, barring the mage’s primary affinity of course.”

“Very good, very good. Hoho, I suppose this generation isn’t all hopeless. Come here.” I scampered closer. She placed her hands over mine; they were wrinkled, but despite her age, her grip was firm. “This is a simple Life spell,” she said. “It will allow you to stimulate the healing of small wounds, ensuring they heal quickly and do not grow infected. These are the gestures.” She gently but forcefully manipulated my hands into a simple pattern. “Do them again.” I attempted to repeat the gestures; she corrected me. “Again.” I practiced the gestures again. “Again.” Over and over, until the gestures were firmly implanted in my muscle memory. “Now, to do the spell in reality.” From seemingly nowhere, Granny produced a knife and handed it to me.

I didn’t hesitate. Holding the knife in my right hand, I slashed a gash onto the top of my left. Blood welled up immediately, forming drops that fell to the ground. It hurt, but that was ok. Granny said “now, open yourself to the Expanse.”

Again, I opened myself up, feeling that ocean of power inside my soul. It was ready to be directed—and this time, I had a goal. I performed the hand gestures I had just learned.

Instantly, I yelped as pain in my left hand tripled. Tears began streaming from my eyes. Granny said “the pain is proof the spell worked. Look.” Obediently, through my watery eyes, I gazed at my hand. Sure enough, the cut now looked like it was a day or two old. “A strong Life mage would have instantly healed a cut that size with that spell,” Granny commented.

“Really?” I was a bit crestfallen.

“Hoho, Life isn’t your primary domain, remember? You shouldn’t expect it to come as naturally as Space. Now then, that’s enough training for today. You should rest and—”

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sounds of shouting coming from the nearby room that we had loosely adopted as a living room. “Dearie me,” Granny sighed, leaning on her staff. “What are those fools up to now?” I heard breaking glass followed by further raised voices. Granny shook her head and beckoned me to follow.

The living room was only a hundred feet from my training ground, so even with slow-moving Granny, we got inside quickly. We had adapted it as the lounge or living room because it was one of the few rooms in any of the buildings with windows to let in the “natural” light. It was also fairly spacious and had a collection of carved wooden furniture.

But right now, it contained two men who were no more than a yard away from each other, screaming. On the left was Mr. Hendriss, or Old Man Hendriss as I and Bekah had called him. He was older than my father but not nearly as old as Granny, completely bald, and with a narrow face that looked like he had spent a whole lifetime scowling. Opposing him was Andre Elihu, a thirty-something man who had been a lawyer before the Empire had passed laws barring mages from professional jobs. He wore the tattered suit and dull green tricorn hat he had worn in practice. Normally, he could be seen with a trace of a smile on his rounded face, but today he was just as mad as Hendriss.

The two didn’t seem to notice that Granny and I had come in. Hendriss was shouting something about being sick of the other’s attitude. I looked at Granny, trying to send her a message with my eyes to tell her to break up the fight. She simply shrugged and looked at me as if to say “you take care of this.”

So I did the only thing I knew how: I shouted “STOP FIGHTING!” I filled myself with the Expanse—it came easily—and on instinct, performed the hand gestures required to cast a levitation spell. I only managed to lift both of them a few inches, but it was enough to grab their attention.

Ok, now their attention was on me. Now what? I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Desperate, I wondered what would my father do? Easy; he would sternly reprimand them. Somehow, I didn’t think I could pull off “stern.” Who else could I draw from? Granny? No, she was right here; I’d look foolish imitating her right in front of her. Liah? Definitely not.

The two formerly arguing men were still looking at me expectantly. Who else, who else? A face came to mind. It was inches from my own, as its owner had pinned me to the wall with a threatening determination. I couldn’t quite do it to the same effect as Shemman had, but…

In a voice I deliberately kept calm, I said “we are all mages here. We have enough enemies outside. We will not make any more in here.” I pointed out the window in the direction of the Pocket’s grey wall. “If you hate it in here that bad, I can send you back out.” This was stupid. I was still a kid! There was no way these two grown men would take this from me.

Old Man Hendriss put down his arms. “Aye, I get the picture. Ya’ can put me down.” With a start, I realized the two men were still suspended a few inches above the ground. Hastily, I dropped the spell, letting the Expanse dissipate.

Andre rubbed the side of his head, almost dislodging his tricorn. “Well. I do suppose we’ve made right good fools of ourselves, if it takes a child to wake us up.” He turned to Granny and gave a little bow. “I apologize for the disturbance.” He then turned to Hendriss, and with a stiffer bow, apologized to the older man as well. Hendriss muttered something and stormed off. Andre, with one more apologetic look, also left.

Granny looked happy. I could tell what she was thinking: ‘you’ll be my successor, Rakel.’ Before she could say anything, I excused myself. I didn’t have a plan what to do, but almost by instinct my feet led me down the familiar path to the jail cell.

Shemman greeted me with a friendly wave. “Rakel, hello. How fares your day?”

I paused. In the same low, stern voice I had used on the arguing men, I said “we are going to have a discussion.”

“About?”

“About…” Er, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I finally said, in the same stern voice, “your attitude.”

Shemman burst out laughing. “What is this? Why do you sound like an old man with a stomach full of sour grapes?”

I smiled ruefully, and in my normal voice said “doesn’t suit me, huh.”

Shemman cocked his head as if to think seriously about the question. “I do not think that persona is unbefitting, exactly. But I rather like the plain, ordinary you better.”

I turned my back quickly. “Well, no guarantees, all right?” I felt enormously pleased by his words. Not that he should know that.

Shemman said from behind me “I meant no disrespect. I simply spoke the truth.” As my face began to flush, he continued “after all, to the Aijalon sense of beauty, you have little to offer.”

I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him. “Not like you would know beauty!” I scampered back up the stairs out of the jail cell. It was only when I had reached the top that I realized how much I relaxed during my brief conversation with Shemman.