Unmagic

The grounds were just as lonely as they were the day before. Ariadne's words ringing in Klava's ears, she wrapped up her food and walked toward the back entrance of the school. If Delphi could try and be like ice, she could try and be like the sun just once. All she had to do was start with the right person.

No one questioned her as she stepped through the green portal to the shadows of the mansion where the dreary town lay. Twice she'd been here now, and both times the sky had been a flat grey. It washed out the colorful leaves of the manor garden and erased shadows. She stepped through the overgrowth to find the boy's tower darkened and abandoned.

Torn between finding another rock or circling the building for a front door, she turned to see the boy scowling at her from the sitting room window. He tore deeper into the house, and for a brief moment, Klava worried she'd be left to wander the empty town until classes began. That is, until he burst through the patio doors with something tightly gripped in his fist.

"You! You broke the rock," he said, quivering with indignation, the glowing stone from when they first met clenched in his fist. A head shorter than her, it was hard to feel intimidated by him when he opened his hand to show her what had been hovering around in his room.

“No it’s not." Klava tilted her head so she could get a better look. "It’s still a rock.”

“Rocks are supposed to fall when they’re dropped.” He let go and it hovered a few centimeters off the ground. “Look, it’s forgotten how to because of you. Now fix it.”

“It’s not broken, it’s enchanted.” Though she was impressed it remembered her words so fondly. “It can do whatever it wants to.” And up the rock began to float.

“No it can’t!” Mortis stamped his foot. “We need rocks to be rocks, and they stay on the ground when they’re not held.” The rock froze mid air, unsure of whom to listen to. “That’s the rule.”

“Says who?”

“Says gravity, that’s who! It’s a law and everything here has to follow the law.” The rock dropped to the ground. “See, was that so hard?”

“You did that! You did magic.” She knelt down, examining it closely. “Or you undid it.” She wasn’t sure. “Whatever was done, you did the doing and I bet you could do it again. You could be a witch!”

"I'm not supposed to do things. Old Father said people can't change the world too much, or bad things happen." He'd been so afraid of getting in trouble, he had kept the silly thing in the corner of his room where it couldn't be found.

"I knew it," Klava beamed. Boys were being taught out of the practice, and by foolish old men no less. By the looks of the boy, he was about three years younger than her. If she just started magical training, he could too.

"No you didn't," he said. "You can't have, you've never been inside. If you knew, you never would have broken it." Old Father had a far more elegant way of explaining things. Mortis doubted he'd make any sense talking about hearths and fires without the heat of a flame roaring in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

Klava held up her wrapped lunch.

"I was hoping to have someone to talk to," she said. "You can say whatever you want, so long as I'm not eating alone. I only have forty minutes. That wouldn't take too much out of your day, would it?"

Morai and Rook had been awfully upset when Mortis said he hadn't talked with anyone. Something about knowing how long she'd be on the grounds put him at ease, as opposed to last time where she and a number of girls hovered at his window asking absurd questions. If he entertained her, it would fulfill his strange new assignment without having to venture outside of the manor.

"I suppose I could move checking the faucets to the evening this time."

"Excellent." She wasn't sure where to go, but there was a table on the patio. The chairs were poorly cared for with weather-eaten cushions, but it was empty and waiting for her, which was more than she could say back at school. "So, if you aren't busy with magic, then what are you busy with?"

He hesitated, having nothing of his own to eat, and sat opposite of her stiffly. His luck with sharing his interests with strangers was poor. So, even though he'd been mostly concerned with the state of the house, he went with what was familiar: heroes. Everyone liked a good heroing story the first time around. He could tell from the look in her eyes she wasn't that interested, but she nodded along and asked questions anyway while she ate.

***

The library quickly became Klava's favorite place to go. Rows of books framed by crystal walls, plants growing from the rafters. It was, in its own way, a sanctuary. Her roommates enjoyed it as a shelter from the elements while waiting for their early morning classes to start.

"You'd be proud of me," she told her friends, Ariadne mostly; Delphi hadn't been proud of anything Klava accomplished. "I found someone to talk to during break."

"Then my advice worked?" Ariadne puffed out her chest, her heat-set curls bowing humbly before springing back into place. "Good. I know it was vexing you to be alone."

"Yes," Klava said. "You remember Mortis." Perhaps they didn't. They looked at each other then back at her. "The boy."

"You didn't." Delphi gasped. "We're not supposed to go outside!"

"Why? It's not like there are people in town to follow me. I made sure I came back in time," Klava said. "Besides, that's not as important as my latest discovery. He can use magic." Klava waited to receive an appropriate amount of oohs and ahhs. "It sounds like he's training with an old guy to do special kinds of spells, undoing spells. I bet that's where all the boy witches have gone. They're calling themselves something else and staying indoors." She nodded satisfied with her answer. "Makes much more sense than them wishing us harm. Stupid old men wanting to be special instead of educated. A shame really. He could do far more than unmagic if he wanted to. The idea scares him for some reason."

"Unmagic?" Ariadne frowned. "I've never heard of unmagic."

"I don't know what else to call it," Klava said. "One second my enchantment clung to a rock like a second skin, the next it was gone. He couldn't tell me how he did it either. It was the strangest thing."

"Klava, I really don't think you should go there anymore," Delphi said. "Something that can undo magic will be able to break through any defensive spells you cast. You could get hurt, or worse." The feeling of dread when she approached the manor made more sense now. "Magic is woven into our souls. If it's undone..." She pulled on a loose thread at her sleeve, and the hem unraveled, breaking free from the neat folds it had been pressed in.

"There are things other than magic," Ariadne said. "If she says it undid her spell, then whatever it is, it's more powerful than her. This boy, Mortis, you talked with him?"

"Sort of," Klava said. "He more talked at me. It was pleasant. I asked if we were friends and he shrugged."

"Good." Ariadne ignored Delphi's objections. "There is power in friendship. If he really is training to be an anti-magician or whatever he wants to call himself, befriending him now before anyone cares will make you more favorable in his eyes. You should see him as much as you can if it feels safe to." Ariadne and Delphi bickered, as they often did, over who was right up until the morning bell rang. "Well, we both know whose advice has worked so far, and whose hasn't." She winked at Klava as she picked up her books.

"Delphi, have you given me advice?" All she could remember was the girl rolling her eyes and saying what not to do. Hardly helpful, given there was plenty not to do, and not nearly enough to do.

"It depends on what you want," Delphi said. "If what you want is to learn at this school, then yes, I suppose I have. If you want to beat the other girls for the crown, then no."

She was always so bitter. It was strange. Klava lingered behind in the warmly lit halls for a little while longer. Her reflection in the wall of mirrors at the back of the hall reminded her how deeply she slouched compared to the other girls. Trying to stand straighter, but failing, she braved the barricade of nature that waited outside.

As soon as the autumn air hit her cloak, the cold would seep into her bones and burn her skin. There was no winning when the elements were harsh and the school desperate to overcorrect the halls. She was always in one space too long to sacrifice adjusting for the other. She needed something for her magical thesis. Perhaps an enchanted jacket would be the ticket.