Heart of the Eclipse, Book one: Ascent
Chapter 6
Terra Arcana, Evans family realm
Moon after moon passed by, and Harry, Flora and Hermione concentrated their efforts on the development of their magical senses. They had fully mastered their magical control over the concepts of light and movement, both active and passive. They did not learn how to actively control any new concepts, though, although they knew the theory. Instead, they focussed on their passive control, or, as Lily had called it, sensing that concept.
They spent hours meditating on each new concept, comparing it to every concept they already knew, noting similarities, differences and common tendencies. This was quite difficult, since comparing moisture to movement, for example, was nearly impossible. They had almost nothing to do with each other, but the children still needed to teach their magic how one differed from the other, so they could sense both better.
They also needed to consider the whole concept, not just parts of it. For light, there were colour and brightness to consider, as well as darkness – which is the absence of light, not a separate concept. Learning about light meant learning about darkness, the same with warmth and coldness, moisture and dryness, life and death...
"In the end, every concept is named after one part of a spectrum, and when learning about that end, you must also learn about the other. Magic always strives to keep a balance, so if you make one place brighter, you take that potential for light away from the world, and somewhere else, the world will be a bit darker. That's why we don't simply solve all our problems with magic alone: Even when we take something from the infinite wildlands, we exchange the energy we use to find something for that which we take."
Lily looked around at the landscape, at the house the children had built, the bridge they had built over the river, the stone path they had built along one side of the river towards the beach, which was a few miles downstream. She made the children do the same.
"Even this realm doesn't come free of charge: the instance we entered it, we made a promise to magic itself, pledging to nourish the potential of this bare realm and make it grow in some way. So whenever you do magic, remember: all magic is a trade, and whether or not you notice it, the price will be paid."
Harry nodded.
"So that's why we gather wood for fire and why we search the forest for food, or plant and harvest it in the garden. There's always enough to be found, but we have to look for it – not because magic wants to hide it from us, but because gathering the food is our part of the bargain."
He had started talking in front of his mother again shortly after they had moved to this new realm, mostly because he felt less insecure now that there were no outsiders to be met.
"Exactly. It might not be a high price for us to pay, but that's how trade works: we give something we need less than the other party to receive something we need more than the other party, but in the end, they have the same value in the eyes of magic. And since magic itself is the other party in this case, it decides the price."
This seemed to bother Flora for some reason.
"Why does it set such a low price for food, then?"
"Because it's nothing more than basic food, and magic actually wants us to survive. More than that, it wants us to become better at everything, since magic itself learns from our creativity and experience, too. Food, as long as it isn't more than we need, is more or less free."
Flora frowned, but nodded. This explained why they found plenty of fruit and vegetables when walking through the forest, but only encountered animals they could hunt every few days. Hermione, though, had another question.
"Doesn't that mean that we should actually feel less valuable things as we get better at using magic to sense our environment? The better we get at that, the less energy we need to spend to look for something – shouldn't the food become harder to find as time goes on?"
Lily laughed at that.
"Not really, Hermione. You spend hours upon hours trying to sharpen your magical senses. Learning and training could be called long-term investments. You might only need to do so once, but by becoming better at something, you also become more valuable to society as a whole and to magic itself. It might sound like cheating, but it's actually part of the rules of our world."
All three children nodded and went back to their meditation. Currently, they were trying to sense magic itself. They could already feel the path a spell took, but they were told to get good enough to feel the magical properties of a potions ingredient or recognize the concepts within a spell. This was tricky, since the easiest way to sense magic was by its interaction with other concepts. It was, therefore, difficult to isolate and contemplate more directly. They would need days to get this right, and even more days to actually master it.
Meanwhile, Lily also taught them other things so they didn't just meditate the whole day. After their wooded house had been completed, the children learned the finer details of more complicated architecture, moving on to stone buildings after another moon had passed. They had also learned how to weave different kinds of fabrics, for clothes as well as curtains and carpets.
"This is actually one of the more useful skills. While we don't need many clothes once we have a wardrobe bracelet, since it automatically cleans and repairs the clothes we wear, some people are incredibly vain and pay quite a bit of money for good clothes. Some of the more magical furs and silks are also a great basis for enchanted clothes, and adventurers often buy several sets of those for different situations, since one article of clothing can only hold a finite amount of enchantments before it dissolves from too much magic."
For metalwork, on the other hand, they were told to take the course at Hogwarts. Lily had only studied enough to shape basic items like cutlery, nothing more durable than that.
"Crafts are the second best way to earn money, only surpassed by really good adventurers, and only because adventurers gather the needed materials for craftsmen and -women. The more crafts you learn, the less you will depend on others. You will have to learn most of them at school, though, since I always leaned more towards research."
All in all, by the time their twentieth eclipse came, the three Evans children were well prepared for school, so they had a full cycle left to mostly relax, with some minor exceptions.
"Today, we will try to find your focus. Remember, while a focus can be useful in some situations – mostly when fighting – it isn't strictly necessary. If you don't find one, Hogwarts will supply you with a wand, which is an artificial focus, when you learn spellcraft; those are frowned upon in duels, though."
The children knew this, so they nodded at Lily to continue.
"A true focus is the physical manifestation of an echo of your soul and magic, which makes it the perfect conductor for your magic when casting a spell. You call it by concentrating on yourself and the magic within you, then calling it into reality. It's difficult to explain, you have to experience it to understand. I'll demonstrate."
Lily closed her eyes, and the children could actually feel her magic becoming more focused. Then, she snapped her eyes open at the same time as she held her right hand out to her side. A beautifully crafted rapier appeared in her hand, a delicate ornamental metal cage protecting her hand, which gripped the deep red hilt. The blade was slim and decorated with fine lines, forming the image of a flower – a lily.
"This is my focus, the Blood Lily. She started out as a regular rapier, not very special at all, and got closer to this form the more I learned and the better I became at duelling. She reflects my preferred duelling style, which incorporates precise cutting and piercing sorcels – precision and speed rather than power."
She let her hand fall back to her side, the beautiful blade disappearing during the motion. Then, she told the children to try.
After two hours, Flora was the first to complete the exercise. From her feet upwards, as if watching a tree grow very quickly, she was covered in rough wooden armour. It actually seemed to leak magic. She asked her mother if it was supposed to do so.
"Yes, actually. As I said, a focus is usually used for specific tasks more often than for others. While you can use that armour to focus all types of magic, its shape suggests that it will lean towards defensive and supportive magic in battle. It leaks magic because it isn't developed yet – it will become more refined the more you use it, and the more it learns, the less magic it will leak."
As she finished speaking, Hermione managed to call her focus, too.
"Oh, that's rare – a body focus. Since your hand keeps changing form, we have to assume that you can shape at least parts of your body into parts of different animals – you might even be able to change shape completely. The animal parts will actually carry your magic, like cutting curses in claws and similar things. You seem more suited towards self enhancement and offensive magic, which balances out Flora's more defensive focus."
Suddenly, reality felt more intense, but more fragile at the same time. Hermione's newly grown fur gained a stylized golden sun on the back of her right hand, and Flora's armour showed a stylized silver moon on the back of her left hand.
Harry, though, suddenly wore a black cape made of rough wool. Embroidered on the back was a strange symbol: a set of scales, made from green thread, with the left tray replaced by a stylized golden sun and the right tray replaced by a stylized silver moon, held in a perfect balance.
"So, that question is answered, as well: You do have your own focus, Harry, but when you call it, Flora and Hermione are influenced, too. I can't tell you what your focus will be good at, though. Clothes are unpredictable. Gloves, for example, have often been a focus – they leaned towards stealth, battle magic, crafting or even healing. I can't remember any capes, though. Girls, can you release your focus while Harry keeps his?"
The girls tried, but they couldn't do it.
"I thought so. Harry's magic flows so strongly when he calls upon his focus, it calls yours out, too. Be careful, your own magic is probably amplified right now. Well, let's end this here – you know how to call upon your focus, but your training with them will be done at school."
"Girls?"
"Yes, Harry?"
The children were lying in their bed, which they still shared.
"Would you mind if I decided to become a girl, too?
Lily had just given them their second, more elaborate talk today, since they would soon leave for school, and this time, they didn't even react all that much. Between the three of them, nudity was quite normal, since they never wore clothes in their bedroom and bathroom. They only dressed when they left those room and went somewhere where Lily could see them.
The talk had made Harry think, though. He hadn't seen anybody except these two girls and his mother in several cycles, but he still disliked the thought of males. It might not be rational, but it was part of his coping mechanism: Those who had hurt him were male, those who had helped him were female. It was simple, it wasn't logical, but it gave him a sense of security at least among girls.
His "sisters" looked at him.
"Harry, we'll get those urges one day. For me, being washed by you in the shower already starts to feel better every time you do it, and I think Flora feels the same. As far as we know, nobody else will ever be able to touch us like that – the magic flowing through our bodies would fry them."
Harry frowned.
"So you want me to stay a boy. I understand... although it still makes me uncomfortable."
Hermione smiled at him.
"Not completely, no. If you want, you can change into a girl, just keep the parts we'll need in a few years somehow. I'll even do the same, so we can both experience both sides when the time comes."
Flora nodded.
"Me too, Harry. We're in this together, and if we have to be outsiders anyway, we may as well have different bodies, too."
"So we'll all change into some kind of half boy, half girl?"
Flora giggled.
"More like full girl with additional boy parts thrown in somehow. Hey, we could even be triplets – that wouldn't make this any weirder at this point, would it?"
Harry smiled.
"I can live with that. Hey, I can actually imagine it: Long, untameable, blood red hair..."
Hermione continued for him.
"Those wonderful emerald green eyes both of you have..."
They spent another hour talking about every detail of the body they would all have, incorporating details of both Hermione's and Flora's original bodies. Harry deliberately didn't include his own body beyond the necessary parts.
They fell asleep with their magic running through them, and when they woke up the next morning, they didn't react to their changes with anything beyond an excited smile.
Lily was in for a shock, though, when three identical children sat down at the breakfast table.