015 — Lessons From Magic

Bucky had his soul leap out of him and sucked back in. He was up in bed, shirtless and with bad hair, pillow creases on his cheek, wondering what in the hell had just woken him up. He felt awake and ready, but ill-prepared for Zee so early in the morning.

'Zee? Dammit,' he wrestled around for his phone from the night stand, 'it's six in the morning! Is your internal clock working?'

'My internal clock is just fine,' Zee said.

Bucky crumbled, knowing he'd never fall back to sleep, and hopped from bed. He tugged at a pant leg. 'Mr Morning Glory, your fat metal ass is inconveniently on my trousers.'

'Sorry.'

Bucky claimed his jeans and pulled them on. Zee awaited, servile, with Bucky's t-shirt. Bucky analysed his friend's uncharacteristic behaviour.

'Are you all right? Please tell me you're not always this cheerful in the morning. Ro would've severed your head from the rest of your body if you were.' He splashed water on his face in the sink as Zee answered.

'I took your advice. I talked to Ro about it.'

'Oh, no!' Towel in hand, Bucky stomped his way back to Zee. He threw the towel at the synthoid's irritatingly modest pate. 'You talked to her! About—about—about—'

'The word you're looking for is sex.'

'DAA!' Bucky screamed. He turned and banged his forehead into the nearest wall. 'No! No! No! This is not happening! This is not happening!' Once again facing Zee, Bucky's pale face tightened. 'You don't mean that you—that you—and her— Please tell me you just spent all night talking, without any demonstrations.'

'It's not the sort of activity that one can talk about for long without actually—'

'Oh my God, shut up!'

'—doing it.'

The door between the rooms stood open, Ro there, having finished Zee's sentence to announce her presence. Bucky was on her in a second.

'Ro—don't make me disown you!'

'You're overreacting.'

Bucky made a frantic gesture as if to suggest the circumstance was worth every ounce of his energy and drama. 'Well, duh! I think I'm a little entitled right now!'

Ro explained to him the best she could. She, up for hours, had talked to Zee about it, what would happen now. And— 'Nothing's changed. Well, that's not really true—something has changed.'

'Yeah!' cried Bucky. 'You're completely mental! Oh, I can't wait to tell this to your brother!'

'There's nothing to tell.'

'Beg to differ.'

'Casey wouldn't believe you, anyway.'

Bucky emitted a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry, so emotionally riled. For a moment, his back to both Ro and Zee, he thought of the wisdom his uncle had taught him, of all the things he'd learned of machines in the last three years. Finally, able to face the truth, he returned to them.

'Zee, I'm glad you're learning what it's like to be human. And I'm glad you have someone so humane and beautiful as Ro to teach you. Ro, God am I thankful, beyond words, that you have found something in your life you can believe in. And in the basic principles of humanity, nonetheless.' He counted them off on fingers as they were named. 'Freedom. Loyalty. Love. Happiness. And there's nothing in the world that would ever make me give up my friendship with the two of you—nothing at all. But I'm telling you— No, no—I'm warning you, from the things I've seen, being where I've been all this time—I've seen things—and there are always consequences. You can't love someone or something without bringing some sort of wrong into the world right along with the good of love. No,' he said, pointing at Ro, who had her mouth open for a retort, 'I'm talking right now—and you will listen to me, both of you! Every step we take has a reaction in this world, in ways that we don't even know, can't even fathom, can't even see because we're so inept. And you mark my words, the two of you, that this is going to have repercussions and admonishments so enormous and foul that I hope—I genuinely hope—we still have our heads too far up our asses to see them!'

During the speech, he whipped around the room, collecting into pockets the few personal items he'd brought with him. Then, at last, he held up his phone, dialled a number saved in his directory the night before, said some words neither Ro or Zee really heard, or that Bucky remembered speaking, and hung up. With fists on his hips, Bucky stared them down.

'Nothing's different, isn't that what you said?'

Ro blinked burning tears from her eyes. 'Nothing is different.'

'Bull,' he spat, grabbing his coat forcibly and throwing it on. 'Bull! You want to know what that was that we all felt last night? That madness coming up from the earth? Well, that was it—the start of it—your punishment for playing around with a magic you can't ever understand. Fine! FINE! Deal with it on your own! But I'm out of here. . .'

His hand on the door handle, Bucky lingered for a moment, listening to Ro's sniffles and feeling Zee's uncertainty. Finally, Bucky, angry at himself, strode towards Ro and embraced her tightly. Ro let out a liberal tandem of sobs against his shoulder. Bucky was moved to the point where tears prickled his eyes.

'I'm sorry, Ro.'

'It's okay. I'd be angry, too.' She rubbed in the wet kiss he imprinted on her cheek.

He said nothing to Zee but went back for the door. At the end, just before departing, Bucky deigned to acknowledge Zee. 'Call me when . . . Just call me.'

Zee and Ro were quiet the entirety of the morning. Unable to stand being in the hotel, they went for a long drive, into country landscapes and along roads that were becoming as familiar as friends. Zee stopped at a county park, the two of them walking in silence for thirty minutes, till they came to a cascade of water over steep rocks into a shallow, fish-filled pool. The trees hummed with activity, birds and insects and squirrels. Ro set her lumbar against the railing of the bridge across the stream, looking at Zee. He looked back at her and saw the eyes still rimmed in red, from exhaustion and sadness.

'You don't think he's right, do you?' Ro wanted to talk about it, wanted Zee's sound, methodical mind to tell her the entire idea was preposterous.

But Zee angled his shoulders across the railing, his elbows against it, his hands clasped. 'I'm not sure.'

'He can't be right.'

He heard the tears in her voice and went to comfort her. At first she resisted, too worried of what it might entail, but gave in, his sheltering arms more comforting than standing alone amid the grasping hands of fear. Zee kissed the top of her head, smoothing her hair. Ro rubbed her runny nose on the back of her wrist.

'What I do know of this world, Ro,' began Zee, careful, as always, of his words, 'is that it contains many unfathomable layers, layers that you and I cannot tap into. I don't know why we can't. There are any number of spiritual and physical reasons why. Is there magic in the world? Of course there is. There must be, otherwise it would be an unbelievably dreary place to reside for ninety or a hundred years. Is there magic in this world that I have rent, broken, or obliterated simply by being here, by existing? I'm sure I don't know. But I'm going to find out.'

It was when he let go of her, and they started walking on, that Ro halted. She let Zee's hand slip from her fingers. She stood still, waiting for it to abate.

'What's wrong? Ro?'

She felt it again. She put a hand over her heart and felt it again. 'It's here.'

'What is?'

Ro lifted her gaze, bleared by tears, and saw it, the streaks of light that made Zee what he was. She saw it in an instant, a blur of whites and blues, with an amethystine cloud rising up from the ground beneath his feet. She blinked again, and it vanished. Zee was just Zee again.

But it was too late to take it back, to act as though yesterday was the same as today. Ro knew it. And, soon, so would Zee.

'I'm scared for you,' Zee said. 'What is here, Ro?'

Such a sickness she had never once known, in her lengthy eighteen years. A wave of nausea and a cold emptiness through her body, reminding her that she was mortal, that she was dust, that she did not belong. . . .

'It's come,' she whispered, ending their ignorance. 'The broken magic has come.'

• º •

Thanks to those that took two minutes out of your lives to let me know you were reading this, and for taking three hours out of your life to read it. My gratitude as always.

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