Once they were back at the lab Balthazar wasted no time getting down to business. He had Elaine stand in the center of the circle while he walked around it, lecturing her.
"That ring on your finger is not just a piece of jewelry," he explained. "It projects the electrical energy of your nervous system into the physical world. Without his ring a sorcerer is powerless."
"So I shouldn't lose it," Elaine commented as she stared at the dragon ring intently for a moment.
Balthazar sighed and nodded. He reached into his coat, which was still lying across a chair near the table, and pulled out a pair of shoes. He tossed them to Elaine who almost didn't catch them. "The only other thing a sorcerer needs is a nice pair of pointy shoes."
Elaine looked down at her Converse sneakers and gave Balthazar a questioning glance. "What's wrong with these?"
"The rubber soles block the current," he said to her question. "Plus, it helps to look classy."
Elaine examined the shoes in her hands. They were wing tipped shoes that looked like 1930's mobster footwear. "Honestly I'd rather wear a pair of five inch spiked heels!" Elaine commented.
Balthazar had to try really hard not to let that image ruin his stern expression. Let's just say that the picture in his mind was defiantly an appealing one.
"Besides, these are old person shoes!" Elaine added with distain.
"Excuse me?" Balthazar said, clearing his throat ominously.
Elaine looked at Balthazar and noticed that he was wearing almost identical shoes to the ones she was now holding. The only difference was the shoe size and width. With an audible swallow she added hastily, "I love them."
Horvath found just the man he had been looking for. There was always a list keeper, for each generation. Actually it was more like two, one for Morganians and one for Merlineans. They were a normal vanilla mortal that had a list of every living Morganian, or Merlinean, sorcerer alive and practicing.
Horvath had located the Morganian list keeper. It was pure luck that the guy worked in New York. He approached the dingy food truck with a sneer. Surely the list keeper could do better than this for a job. This man's father had been in the mob before Horvath had been imprisoned in the Grimhold.
The older cook, Candelario, was manning the grill. He had just put two fresh burger patties down, when he noticed something very odd. The raw patties had a symbol burned into them, a Morganian pentacle.
He looked up from the grill to see Horvath standing outside the food truck, staring intently at him. He motioned to his boss that he needed a break, and got out of the truck. He walked over to where Horvath was standing in the shadows.
"I haven't seen that cane since I was a boy. My father showed it to me in the book. You've been locked up a long time." He said as he faced the sorcerer.
"Yes. Now I'm out, and I need soldiers. Your father was the list keeper, so I assume it was passed on to you." Horvath sneered.
"Yeah, that's me..." Candelario said with false enthusiasm. He seemed to think about the request for a moment before answering. "I got one kid. He's not old school, but he might be all you've got."
This was not what Horvath had been hoping for. "Just give me the information," he commanded. This was defiantly not his day.
Balthazar stood across from Elaine in the circle. They had been going over the basic rules of sorcery for the past few hours. He figured it was about time to start teaching her some spells. He made a duffle bag appear out of thin air.
"Open that," he instructed Elaine.
Elaine walked over to it and opened up the bag. Inside was a full set of Catchers baseball protection. "Um, I'm not really into sports." Her voice was hesitant as she pulled out the equipment.
"It's not for sports, it's for safety," Balthazar said with a wink.
"Oh boy…" she muttered as she started putting on the equipment. Once she was done she went back to stand across from Balthazar.
"Remember, your cleverness, ingenuity, and heart will always give you an advantage over Morganians," he told her seriously. "They rely too much on the power of their magic and not enough on the strength of their character."
"Fire is a powerful tool for a sorcerer, which you have already seen. But when your back is up against a wall, and you need to bring out the big guns, there's only one weapon of choice. A plasma bolt."
Balthazar held out his hands. Suddenly the space between them began to glow. Electrons swirled around into a sphere of hyper-charged matter which he turned and hurled at the wall behind him. This left an impressive scorch mark.
Elaine laughed when she realized that she and Karen had spent the better part of a year trying to make plasma from the Tesla Coils, and here she was learning to make it from scratch with her bare hands.
She focused her will on the electrons in the air and around her hands. She cleared her mind and tried to pull them together into a ball. Unfortunately Balthazar had made it look a lot easier than it was. She got nothing the first twenty some-odd times. Then finally she got one, but it was so small it fizzled into nothing the second she lost her focus. Again and again she got small ones that died before she could throw them.
Balthazar watched from time to time. He wasn't surprised that she hadn't successfully managed it yet. The spell had taken him a least a week to learn. He was greatly impressed that she was doing as well as she was.
"Keep trying," he ordered before sticking his nose back into the Encantus. He was researching the spell to access the soul of another human being. A spell that would let him "read" her soul, and see if he was correct.
It was called "True Sight" and would allow him to see the truth of anyone's soul. To see who and what they truly were inside. A very powerful spell, because once seen, it could never be unseen. Also it would allow the target a glimpse inside the soul of the sorcerer. Very dangerous indeed.
He had to stop in surprise as a rather large plasma bolt went flying right past him, missing his head by mere inches. He looked over the rim of his reading spectacles to give Elaine a look or reproach.
"Try again, and aim a little better next time." Then he resumed his research.
"Yes boss…" she mumbled back to sarcastically. She had actually been rather impressed with the size of that last bolt, but apparently her aim lacked a certain something. Diligently she tried again, and again, for the next hour.
Finally she felt that she had it figured out, mostly. Her aim still needed a bit of work, but the plasma ball was almost always the same size now. Exhausted, she walked over to the chair and flopped down. Idly she looked at the clock on the wall. It read six in the evening.
"Oh shit!" she exclaimed, throwing off the baseball gear.
Balthazar looked up at her from the chair he was in. His face had a trace of mild surprise at her sudden reaction. "What?" he asked calmly.
"You have to get out of here. Karen is probably on her way so we can work on the coils. I can't believe I forgot!" Elaine said as she scrambled around, trying to get the coils back into place.
Balthazar frowned as she worked. He needed her to focus on training, and not get distracted right now. She was really starting to make some progress. He stood up and moved to stand in her way. She glared at him as he got between her and the final piece of equipment.
"You can't get distracted," he said with that authoritative calm voice that he sometimes had.
"Balthazar this is school work. It's as important as sorcery." She said just as her friend unlocked the door and started down the stairs.
"Elaine? Where were you today?" Karen asked as she came down into the lab. She had her backpack on and was watching her steps on the old stairs. When she looked up and saw Balthazar she paused midstride.
"Oh Elaine, I didn't realize I would have to share your time today?" Balthazar said with disappointment. "I thought we had plans."
Elaine rolled her eyes at Balthazar and turned her attention to her friend. "Karen, this is…" She paused not sure how to describe Balthazar.
"Balthazar Blake. I'm the new partner to Elaine at the museum. Working on the…" he said leaving the rest up to Elaine.
"The Arthur project, yeah. Balthazar is a guest archeologist." She said quickly. She knew that she was bad at lying, but with Balthazar's help she knew it didn't sound as lame as it normally would have.
"I see…" Karen said skeptically.
"Balthazar, we have plans for later. Right now I have to work on my physics project." Elaine said with a strained grin.
"It's okay. I have some errands to run. See you later then," Balthazar said before heading out.
Karen turned to Elaine once Balthazar was gone. "He's cute for an older guy. So you're working on the project together?" She asked her friend with a pointed look.
Elaine shrugged. She certainly wasn't completely against the idea, but she'd have to see what happened. Not that she was sure it would work between them. He drove her crazy already!
"Let's get to work," she answered, avoiding the issue.
"Sure thing!" Karen helped her finish setting things up. Once they were done she pulled out a set of portable speakers.
"I'm tired of us not having music in this place," Karen commented as she set them up.
Elaine pulled the mp3 player out of her pack on the table. "We can use mine," she said.
Karen gave her a look of surprise. She had never seen Elaine interested in music. She hadn't suspected that Elaine would even have an mp3 player.
"It was a gift from Sarah," Elaine said in response to Karen's look.
"That makes sense," Karen answered back with a chuckle.
Elaine laughed and hooked the player up. Music filled the cavernous room as they worked. They started the coils and Elaine noticed something amazing as they worked. It was something beautiful that she wanted to share. She was saddened that she didn't have anyone special to share it with.
"I have a date with John. I'll see you tomorrow," Karen said as she got ready to leave a little while later. "Have fun with that cute older guy." She added with a leer before heading out the door.
Elaine considered that she might have been wrong. Maybe she did have someone she could share her discovery with.