Thank you to reviewers. They are very much appreciated. And… I know I'm not very fast at updating, but reviews make me want to write faster… long reviews especially… hint, hint… laughs
And over 30 reviews! I could not believe it. I know, I'm very easily satisified… but I mean, that's over 5 reviews per chapter!
All reviewers deserve some chocolate, and I hope it makes you at least half as happy as you made me! (Meaning you should be bouncing off the walls)
Okay, I'll stop babbling now…
"She should wake up any time now," a male voice hazily drifted to my ears. "I can't think of any other healing spells that will do any good."
"Sir, what if she doesn't wake up?" I vaguely discerned Rose's voice.
"She will," the man's voice didn't sound at all certain. "Of course she will."
I tried to push my eyes open, but the effort was too much. Even thinking was starting to tire me out. My mind drifted between sleep and consciousness… and suddenly cleared.
My eyes were open in an instant. Rose's anxious eyes were looking down at me, and her red hair was spilling over her shoulder and on to my forehead. I felt something sharp and heavy digging into my ribs and wondered if she had stuck her elbow there.
"Lily? Are you okay?"
I let out a small groan. "If there was such a thing as a stupid question, that one would definitely qualify."
"All right. Where does it hurt the most?"
"Right in the center of my chest, where your elbow is so conveniently sitting."
"My elbows are right here, Lily." Rose raised both elbows to show me, but the pain in my chest didn't lift.
An elderly man suddenly moved beside Rose. Actually, to put it more accurately- he bounced. I had never seen an old man like him bounce before. He had a white beard that brushed against the top of his chest, and short, white hair covered his head. His face was wrinkled and aged, but his eyes were dark and warm, and gave a person a feeling of great comfort.
"That was an AMAZING bit of magic you did out there!" he chortled. Yes, he chortled. This was one overly happy guy. "I mean, that shield you built up, that was fantastic magic!"
Rose smiled at my bemused face. "This is Tarmo. He's a healer and a trained wizard."
"Yes, yes, yes," Tarmo was still talking in a happy-go-lucky voice. "I saw that shield you formed, and you didn't even have a wand! That was just an incredible thing for a girl as young as yourself to do. I mean, most wizards never master configuration, even when they get to my age. I myself can't even configure things as well as you can!"
"What's he talking about?" I asked weakly. The pain in my chest was still intense, and Tarmo's overly excited talking was rather overwhelming.
"The wall of light you built up between you and the ogres," Rose answered. "That's configuration. It's a very advanced form of magic. But I don't understand how you can have that in you; magic has to be born into you, and neither of our parents are magical."
"You can also have it infused into your blood at a young age," Tarmo said, opening various bottles and sniffing the contents. "Perhaps your parents had it done by fairies or master wizards, though it does cost a lot of money…"
"There is no way in a million years my father would have paid money to let me do magic," I interrupted. "Er… hypothetically speaking, if a fairy put a spell on you at a young age, by mistake of course, could that cause you to become magical?"
Tarmo wrinkled his nose as he uncorked a dark green bottle. "Under normal circumstances? Possibly, but highly unlikely. The fairy would have to have been trying really big magic and an absolutely ridiculous spell- there's one that makes your hair stay long, no matter how many times you cut it, and there's one that makes you dangerously courageous, and there's another one that makes you have a simply enormous appetite…"
"Getting back to the point," Rose cut in. "How else could Lily have become magical?"
Tarmo poured some brown syrup out of the bottle into a small glass cup. "I honestly have no idea. But that's not really important right now. I would love to have you stay and train with me for a little while. I've been looking for an apprentice and you fit the job description." Tarmo pressed the cup of syrup into my hands. "Now, drink this up."
"Did you purposely pick the potion that smells like rotting dung and spoiled fish?" I asked, resisting the magical urge to suck the potion down.
"Well, yes, that's how you recognize it. I promise it tastes better than it smells," Tarmo said. I gave into the curse and forced the stuff down my throat. I was surprised to find it tasted like… absolutely nothing. But it was slimy and felt odd going down my throat, and I gagged.
"If Lily stays on as an apprentice," Rose broke in, "what should I do?"
"You can stay here, of course," Tarmo said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm sure Lily will appreciate the company."
I nodded. "Er- Rose? About what I said earlier… I don't really wish you had stayed at home. In fact it's… it's kind of nice having you around."
"Forget it," Rose shrugged. "I said some not-so-nice things, too."
Tarmo exclaimed, "That's the spirit! Forgive and forget!" He bounced happily to the door. "If you're going to stay on, you should meet my daughter, Eleya." He pulled the door open and called, "Eleya, dear! Come in!"
Rose glanced down at me. "Feeling better?"
"A bit," I said, rubbing my ribs. The pain had begun to die down, but I could still feel it. "Um, Rose, what happened to Edward?"
"Oh. Edward," Rose's voice was hard. "He went home."
"Home?" I was startled. "What do you mean, he went home?"
"Well, I asked Tarmo to do a magical search, and he found Edward back at our house," Rose shrugged. "I suppose he's told Father everything, but I don't think anyone will bother to come after us."
"Um, no offense or anything, but have you lost your mind?" I asked conversationally.
"Tarmo has put shields up around me and you," Rose explained. "No one, not even by magical means, can find us if we don't want them to."
At this moment Tarmo brought a tall, willowy young woman with long, thin black hair and rather large eyes into the room. "This is my daughter, Eleya."
"Hello," Rose said quietly, and I nodded a greeting.
"It's… nice… to have you here," Eleya said, her voice musical. "I know my father will enjoy the company. He's always been looking for someone to help him mess around with magic."
"Eleya," Tarmo hissed warningly, and the girl jerked as though burned. Her eyes grew even wider, which I hadn't thought possible.
"My… my father," she gasped.
Rose and I eyed the pair keenly. "What's wrong?" Rose asked.
"It's nothing," Tarmo plastered a smile on his face. "Will you two be all right for awhile? There's some… some business I have to take care of."
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The potion remained to be thoroughly disgusting through the ten days I had to take it. Much of those ten days was filled with a long, continued lecture from Tarmo about the dangers of overusing magic, and of putting too much of your energy into the spell. I'm sure there were hidden messages and important information in that lecture, but I was usually too tired and too bored to care.
I was forbidden to leave the room, but Rose brought back fanciful stories of her explorations of the magical house. "Whole shelves lining the walls, full of potion bottles!" she would exclaim. "And cauldrons boiling over fires, just like in the books, and colored sparks shooting off out of the walls without warning. It's like a fairy's house!"
The bedroom I was confined to was not nearly so exciting or magical. A small chest of medicinal potions sat in the corner of the wooden room, and there was only a single wooden table with two plain chairs sitting in the middle of the room. Rose had a simple cot with a red quilt on one side of the room, and I had a blue cot on the other. The small window was too close to the ceiling, and only let in a view of the sky, which was usually cloudy.
"Well, it is the stormy season," Tarmo shrugged when I asked him about it. "During the summer it's very sunny and actually quite beautiful."
Eleya rarely came into the room where Rose and I stayed. She stopped by once to refill my medicine chest, and once to bring in our breakfasts.
"Do you do the cooking here?" I asked her.
"No," she said, smiling a little. "We have a simply magnificent cook here. When my mother was alive, she made the most wonderful food. It was always perfect, and while she swore she used no magic, I saw her casting spells on cookie dough to make it perfectly toasted once."
"I wish I could do that," I murmured, thinking of my own failed cooking attempts. "Your mother sounds like mine."
Eleya jerked in the same way she had after Tarmo had warned her before. "I suppose," she muttered brusquely, and backed out of the room. After that, she brought the breakfasts early in the morning, while Rose and I were still asleep.
On the tenth day, Tarmo finally told me I was ready to start learning to use my magic. "You have to be very careful," he warned. "Uncontrolled magic is very dangerous. You must never, and I mean never use magic when I am not with you until you're fully trained. At best, a spell might backfire. At worst, you could end up killing yourself and others." It was one of the rare times when he spoke seriously.
"Yes, sir," I said, thinking it wouldn't be too much trouble with my curse.
"Now!" Tarmo regained his happy-go-lucky grin. "What do you know of magic already?"
"I know that it can be used to put really stupid curses on people," I muttered under my breath, thinking of my own 'gift' and then spoke louder, "Well, when I configured that shield, I was putting my emotions and energy into it."
"Excellent!" Tarmo said enthusiastically. "You are going to be a very bright student. That is exactly what magic is- taking the energy and emotions you have inside, and bringing them to the outside world. Did you know that all good books are magic?"
"Are they?" I was interested. "How so?"
"The writers take their words, and they spell them with their own emotions. The spells can make you laugh; they can make you cry. When well done, the spelled words can make you feel uplifted, or they can leave you feeling sour inside," Tarmo smiled. "Haven't you ever read a good book, and found yourself laughing or crying?"
"And that's magic?" I asked.
"Yes," Tarmo said, "that is magic at its best."
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The first lesson consisted of a long lecture from Tarmo about the theory of magic, and he promised that in the second lesson, we could try spells for the first time. Rose asked him if she could watch, but he told her my magic was still dangerous, and he sent her off to stay with Eleya until the end of the session.
"Fire is usually the first thing accidentally configured by unknowing wizards," Tarmo said. "They simply cannot figure out how to keep a handle on their anger, and it comes out as fire. So, in order to work the spell, you need to take all your anger, and focus it on your most magical point. Now, where did you say the shield was coming from?"
"My eyes," I touched the edges of the feature.
"Really?" Tarmo was interested. "That is most unusual. Anyway, bringing your anger to your eyes, and focusing all your energy on that anger should produce fire."
"Sir? Why was it, when I was running from the ogres, that my anger did not produce fire?" I asked, wondering at the same time how one moves their emotions.
"There was too much fear mixed in with the anger to form fire," Tarmo answered, sounding slightly impatient, "but there was enough rage for the ogres to feel burned when they touched the shield. Now, Lily, focus your attention on magic, and not questions."
All questions instantly flew out of my mind and I could only think of magic. Tarmo had said to become infuriated. There were plenty of things to feed that flame.
I thought of Edward giving me orders. I thought of my father, telling Edward it was okay to slap me. I saw my mother's tired and worn out face, exhausted and overpowered by my father. I heard the ogres arguing over my body, and I felt fury build up in my chest.
Your eyes! I thought frantically. Bring it to your eyes!
I wasn't exactly sure how to do that, but I put all my effort and strength into that anger, and suddenly, I felt a burning heat issue out of my eyes.
"Very good!" I vaguely heard Tarmo's voice in the background, but I was so concentrated on my anger that I barely noticed. The hotness continued to issue from my eyes, and I saw a hazy image of flames before me.
"Lily! What are you doing?" Tarmo's voice suddenly sounded frightened.
The flames did not stop. They grew larger and clearer, and my eyes continued to burn. My ears were filled with the familiar sound of burning wood, and something was swirling around in my mind.
"LILY! STOP!" Tarmo yelled above the roaring in my ears.
STOP! STOP! STOP! His voice echoed in my mind. The curse was yanking and pulling at me to stop, but I couldn't. My fury had gone out of control, and it was larger and more powerful than any other spell.
Then suddenly, I heard a loud, feminine scream in the background and felt something cold being pressed to my eyes.
The magic was torn away, and I crumpled to the floor, barely noticing the blaze engulfing my body.
Well, that's the chapter! Did it go too fast? I hope it wasn't too confusing.
Please tell me what you think!
Leah Kesri: I really like the book Matilda, but as you can see here, the magic differs in several ways. Originally the magic came out of Lily's finger, but that doesn't work in the rest of the story. Any other connections are entirely coincidental. And no, Ed cannot be eaten. He plays an important part in the rest of the story!
Book Freek: I am… flattered. You sure know how to compliment a writer! (Or at least a girl who likes to think of herself as a writer.) Thank you for your suggestions. Criticism is always welcome, as I like to know how to make my future chapters better. Thank you so much for your review- it definitely made my day!
Iglowinthedark36: has a sponsor mention here, meaning that I want my name on her chapter since I'm putting hers on mine. Just kidding.