True Magic
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.
Chapter Two
"So you're finally learning wizardry," said Johanna, Dawn's mother, over breakfast, smiling at her daughter. Dawn nodded hastily as she gulped down a spoonful of oatmeal.
"Yeah, Lucas is a great teacher to have."
Johanna smirked.
"Why's that?"
"Well," said Dawn, taking a break from her inhalation of breakfast, "he's really smart and he explains things well. I could tell that just from yesterday. Plus, he's really nice."
Johanna's grin broadened.
"He's cute, isn't he?"
"I guess…" Dawn continued to eat to hide her faintly pink cheeks.
"Well, have fun together," winked Johanna as Dawn finished her breakfast. Rolling her eyes, Dawn grabbed her bag and left.
"I'll be back in the evening, Mom."
"Of course. Have a nice day, dear."
"Bye!"
Briefly glancing at her watch, Dawn shrieked when she realized she only had about three minutes to get to Sandgem. She quickly sped off to town.
"You're late," was Lucas's greeting when she sped into the library. "By ten minutes."
"Sorry," gasped Dawn, choking for breath. "I lost track of time."
"Alright. Well, get ready for today's lesson."
Dawn centered herself at a desk and quickly focused on Lucas and the board.
"Since you showed such a prowess in aura control yesterday," said Lucas, "Professor Rowan deemed you ready to learn basic spell casting. I guess I'll be teaching you your first basic spells."
Dawn gleefully cheered, yet his words seemed tinged with bitterness. Again, the naïve girl brushed it off as she attentively prepared for her first spell.
"Here," said Lucas, placing a book on her desk. "I just got the book this morning for you. Keep it."
"Oh, no," said Dawn, shaking her head vehemently. "I couldn't. I'll pay for it, you don't have to."
Lucas smiled.
"It's fine. It's just a book."
"Are you sure?"
Lucas nodded.
Hesitantly, Dawn examined the title. Reading aloud, she said, "An Introduction to the Art of Elemental Magic. Cool!"
Losing all sense of apprehension and instead gaining a feeling of nervousness, she opened pristine tome and read over the table of contents.
"You'll be learning a very simple spell today, an offensive water spell," said Lucas as Dawn scanned the contents. "It's called the Bubble Spell. It's on page fifty-seven."
"Wait a second… If I'm specializing in water, ice, and air magic, why did you get me a book of all the elements?"
"It's always good to have an understanding of any spell, so that if someone uses it against you, you'll know what the spell does and how to counter it," explained Lucas. "So you will have to study spells that you won't even cast."
Dawn moaned.
"Excess studying? That's boring!"
"That's life."
Pouting, Dawn turned to the page Lucas had indicated. "'The Bubble Spell. Description: A spray of countless bubbles is jetted at the foe. Level of difficulty: basic.' Come on," complained Dawn. "Surely there exists a more challenging spell for me to first use?"
"It's always good to start with the easiest spell. If you overexert yourself, you can use up too much aura and damage yourself. You can fall unconscious, and, in some of the more serious cases I've read about, you can actually harm your magical powers," warned Lucas.
"Fine," sighed Dawn. "How does spell casting work anyways? Like, how do bubbles just appear?"
"Here's the lesson part of today," said Lucas. "With elemental magic, there are two ways you can actually do the magic. One way is a direct transformation of your aura into whatever spell you're casting. The second method is to imbue the element of choice with your aura; then, you can control the element by controlling your aura. Of course, for the second choice, you actually need some of the material with you. For the bubbles, you would need to have water. Using the first method generally requires more energy but doesn't need the actual substance. So, we'll learn the less strenuous way first by actually using water."
Lucas reached behind his board and grabbed a bowl of water. Setting it down in front of Dawn, he pointed to the book.
"It'll explain everything."
Dawn read the instructions.
"'To cast the spell with water present, it is necessary to imbue the water with your aura,'" read Dawn. "'To do so, visualize your aura and place it in the water. Attempt to bond your aura to the element.' How am I supposed to bond my aura to the water?"
"Summon your aura first," instructed Lucas. Dawn quickly held out a palm and allowed the vanilla ice cream soft serve aura to materialize. "Now pour it into the water."
Dawn tilted her hand, but the moment her aura left her palm, it disintegrated into the air.
"You have to concentrate. Keep the aura in existence and pour it into the water."
Focusing her entire power on the small handful of aura, Dawn slowly trickled the power into the water. Staring at it intently, she asked, "Now what? It's just sitting there."
"Now comes the even harder part, although doing this with water, ice, and air will be easier for you since you lean towards those spells," said Lucas. "You have to convince the water to accept your aura. Since your aura already prefers the element of water, it'll be somewhat easier."
"How do I convince the water?" asked a bewildered Dawn. A bit of her aura vanished as she lost concentration for a second. Lucas pondered over the question.
"Imagine it like this," Lucas said slowly. "I don't know if this will help, but think of it like you have to make the water think your aura is water. Don't actually try to change your aura to water, just make the water think so."
"But how?" wailed Dawn, more of her aura disappearing as she struggled to maintain the concentration.
"It's hard, but you'll know how to do it after the first time," said Lucas. "I had trouble too when I did my first spell. You just have to coax the water to meld with your aura."
"So I have to mix them together? Like a cake batter?"
"Sort of."
Concentrating with all her might, Dawn glared at the bowl of water and her aura and forced her aura to slowly swirl. She slowly gained an idea and descended down to a molecular level. Each molecule of water was floating around in the liquid, as Dawn imagined. Her aura was a little ice cream molecule. Snapping her eyes shut, she mentally smashed the ice cream and water molecules together. In her mind, the two were stuck together, but still separate entities.
"Way to go," congratulated Lucas. "It took me a pretty long time to get it my first time too, so don't worry about it."
Dawn gasped and opened her eyes. Her luminous ice cream aura had dissolved into the water, leaving a glowing solution behind.
"I did it! I did it!"
"Nice. Once your aura is bound to the object, it stays like that for a while depending on how much aura you put in and the amount of element you dealt with. While it's still powered up with magic, you can control it. Eventually, the magic will wear off, but there are spells you can use to prevent the decay. That's for later though, and right now, you need to try to actually make bubbles."
"How?"
"The aura in the water is still a part of you. Just control it and pull out a bubble of aura. The water is stuck to it and will follow the aura."
Dawn slowly breathed out as she tugged at the aura in the bowl. She carefully pulled out a single bubble.
"Cool," said Dawn, admiring her handiwork. "What happens to the bubble now?"
"Well, you can direct it at something to attack, although you generally want more bubbles than just one," said Lucas, slightly amused.
"Fine," pouted Dawn, focusing back on the water.
A few minutes later, an array of bubbles were floating around the library haphazardly, Dawn not really caring about controlling them.
"Hey, hey, hey!" yelped Lucas, sending out darts of aura from his fingertips to pop bubbles getting too close to the books. "Be careful, and don't get the books wet."
"What do I do with all these bubbles, then?"
"You can still control the aura. Direct them at something to attack with them."
Lucas turned around to check on the other bubbles when he was suddenly drenched in water. Seething, he turned around to see Dawn giggling and pointing a finger at him.
"Did you really have to send them at me?" asked Lucas. Dawn continued to guffaw until she saw another object of interest.
"Hey, what's that?"
Once again, Dawn's attention wandered as she suddenly noticed a wooden staff propped up against the desk. It was about four feet long and made of a fairly strong wood cut to fit within a person's grasp. Extending from the top of the dark brown wood, a clear sphere was set in the middle of four holders carved from the wood.
"Oh, that's a project that I've been working on for the past few weeks. I just finished it. It's a magical weapon."
"Weapon? Why would you need a weapon when you can cast spells?"
"Well, this staff is special in the fact that it can channel my aura to make spells more powerful. So, I put my spell and aura into the staff and the staff amplifies the power of the spell quite a bit."
Hefting the weapon in the air, Lucas twirled it around his fingers a few times like a baton.
"You'll probably want a weapon eventually as well."
"What's the orb for?" asked Dawn, pointing to the clear sphere.
Lucas grinned.
"That's a little fancy addition of mine. It can store some of my aura and I can tap into its reserves if I'm low on power. You know those spells I said that could force an object to retain magic for long periods of time?" Dawn nodded. "Those are exactly what I put on the orb."
"That's cool, but you probably want to dry off," smirked Dawn. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold."
"Considering that you're the one who soaked me, I'd say you do want me to get sick. Why don't you pull the water away from me? It should still be connected to you," retorted Lucas.
Rolling her eyes, Dawn made a coaxing motion with her hand. Sure enough, Lucas was soon dry as the water made its way back to Dawn as she slid it into the bowl.
"You're really getting the hang of this, aren't you?" asked Lucas.
"Yeah, it's not too hard. You just have to concentrate really well."
"Alright. Well, let's get you started on direct spells."
"What?"
"Direct spells are the spells that change your aura into the element."
Flipping the page, Lucas pointed at a paragraph.
"Read that."
Dawn did so, and Lucas began explaining as she finished up.
"With direct spells, it's a little bit harder because your aura has to change into the element. It's like alchemy; you'll have to change one substance into another. The good thing about direct spells is that you don't need to summon bubbles from a body of water. You can just pull bubbles out of your aura. Once you change your aura to water, the water is already magical, so you don't have to worry about that."
Dawn extended a hand and fixated her gaze on it as her shining aura began to develop around it.
"Imagine your aura as water, and it should automatically make the change. You just have to will it enough."
Soon, water was sloshing uncontrollably from Dawn's fingertips.
"Careful!" yelped Lucas. "Only change as much aura as you need and no more so stuff like this doesn't happen!"
Lucas snatched away Dawn's book and snapped the fingers of his other hand. A flame lit in his palm and he held it over the desk. Sending a pulse of power through the fire, the heat blasted throughout the room, drying the desk completely.
"Try again," said Lucas. "Not too much, and remember that you still need to pull away bubbles from it."
Dawn sighed and focused on the task at hand again. After a few minutes of total concentration, bubbles began to appear from her fingertips, each finger sending out a stream of spheres.
"Good job," said Lucas. "Now call them back. When you do direct spells, you can change the spell back to aura and absorb it back. Try it."
Unfortunately, Dawn was startled out of her concentration as the library door suddenly slammed open. The bubbles all bursting in a row, Lucas immediately turned to face the unexpected visitor.
"Oh, Professor," said Lucas, relaxing. "Is there a problem?"
"Quite a big one," boomed the trench coat-wearing professor as he strode over to the two. "I see you're teaching Dawn. Well, good, good, but have either of you heard the news lately?"
Both of the young wizards shook their heads.
"Well, wizards have been disappearing across the region," said the professor, a worried look clearly flashing in his eyes. Lucas and Dawn's eyes widened as Rowan continued. "They've simply vanished. Most of the disappearances are around Veilstone City, and many have also vanished around Eterna."
"Do you have any idea –"
"No," interrupted Professor Rowan curtly. "I don't. And that's why I need your help."
"Our help?" asked Dawn. "That can't be good."
For the first time since Dawn had ever met him, Professor Rowan let out a deep laugh.
"I suppose, but even so, we must do whatever possible. I need you two to go out there and find those mages. The entire region is clamoring, and it's my duty as the regional professor to deal with these things."
"But Dawn isn't anywhere near ready to fight for real, and I'm not either," said Lucas. "We need some time."
Professor Rowan nodded. "You'll get time, but not much. You've only got a week."
Dawn bit her lip worriedly. Lucas, however, seemed unworried.
"That'll be enough, Professor."
"Good."
"We'll need to get weapons, books, ingredients, food and water…"
Lucas began ticking off things to pack, but Dawn simply sat there, looking slightly panicked. Lucas and Professor Rowan talked for a short while before the professor left.
"Well, we'd better hurry and cram as much as possible," sighed Lucas. "It looks like we're dealing with a real threat." Taking note of Dawn's scared expression, his eyes softened slightly. "Are you okay?"
Dawn shivered in response.
"I know it seems kind of scary, but we can't just let this go. If wizards are just vanishing, there might be some sort of rebel group planning on taking over the region."
"But why us? I just started learning magic, and you've only been in here for a year!"
"I don't know," Lucas said softly. "I guess no one else wanted the job." Eyes suddenly turning steely, Lucas continued in a much more business-like manner. "You'll need to prepare a magical bag that'll let you bring along as many necessities as you need. We'll also need to learn as much magic as possible in the time being. You need a weapon too. Some books to bring along would be good backup as well."
"I… I guess…"
"Let's stop for today, alright? Go home, rest, but come back tomorrow knowing we've got lots of work to do. Alright?"
Dawn nodded quietly.
"See you tomorrow then," Lucas said, picking up his staff and escorting Dawn to the library doors.
"Bye," said Dawn, eyes shaded with fear as she left for her home...
"Here," muttered Lucas the next day when they met up in the lab. He thrust three hairclips identical to the ones Dawn wore, except blue, at the girl. Dawn picked them up and examined them.
"Uh, thanks?"
"They're enchanted," said Lucas. "I found them in a store yesterday and thought that I might as well do something. They'll store your aura, but they won't look suspicious since they're just hairclips."
"Really? Wow… By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," said Dawn as she replaced her hairclips. "How do I put aura in them?"
"Just bind your aura to the clips like you would to an element."
"How much aura can these store, anyways?" asked Dawn as she poured power into the blue clips. Lucas shrugged.
"At least enough to restore half your aura."
"What?" asked Dawn, amazed. "How?"
"I did some major spell-working yesterday," said Lucas. "I managed to do one of the stronger magic-storing spells on your clips so that when you store your power in it, the aura is extremely condensed so that you can fit more."
"And then you cast one of those spells that makes the object retain the magic, right?"
"Exactly."
Dawn wobbled slightly when she felt that the clips couldn't take any more of her aura.
"I'm tired…"
Lucas rushed forward and caught her as she suddenly collapsed.
"Did you fill the clips all the way?" asked Lucas, panicking. Dawn nodded sleepily.
"You just drained away about half of your aura," said Lucas. "Sorry – I forgot to tell you not to do that."
He pulled Dawn over to a seat and placed her in it, her head lolling slightly.
"By the way," muttered Dawn, "do I just lose my aura and not get it back? Because then it seems kind of pointless…"
"No, your aura naturally replenishes when it's not being used," said Lucas, making sure that Dawn was set securely. Of course, the moment he let go of her, she tumbled out of the chair.
Lucas suddenly found himself underneath Dawn as she sleepily clung to his jacket. Deciding to fall asleep, the young woman laid her head in the crook of Lucas's shoulder and buried her head into his neck.
Rather annoyed, Lucas attempted to push himself off of the floor, but when he lifted himself slightly off the ground, Dawn suddenly hugged him tightly and stopped his arms from moving.
"Oof!"
Lucas dropped back down and sighed as the girl currently nuzzling his neck with her nose prevented him from moving.
"You are infuriating, you know that?" he seethed. "How do you even do something like this when you're asleep?"
After the anger died down, Lucas finally noticed that he was in a rather compromising position with Dawn. As the realization settled in, his cheeks flared up in a red blaze as he all the more struggled to get out from underneath her, yet as he struggled, Dawn clung tighter still.
"Would you let go of me before someone comes and sees us?" hissed Lucas. Dawn simply contentedly snuggled her human pillow.
Speaking of someone coming, the door to the lab creaked open.
"ROWAN?"
The professor's assistant decided to use his last resort measures. Quickly flaring his aura, he blasted Dawn away from him. She happened to land perfectly in the seat and continued to sleep happily.
Quickly getting up, he dusted himself off before going to see the visitor. It certainly was not anyone that worked in the lab.
"Uh, hello?" asked Lucas hesitantly as he saw the rather angry woman standing at the entrance of the lab.
"Hi. Now tell me, where is the idiot man who dares call himself a regional professor?" seethed the blue-haired lady.
"Uh… not here yet?"
She harrumphed.
"Do you happen to have a waiting area then?"
"Um… sure, come right this way."
He led the woman to the back where Dawn was currently sleeping and gestured to another chair. She paid no attention as she gasped and ran to Dawn.
"Dawn? WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU? DON'T WORRY, I'LL SAVE YOU, DEAR!"
"Hey, wait!" said Lucas.
The woman spread tendrils of magic to Dawn. The gaseous spell wafted under Dawn's nose, startling her awake with a revolting smell.
"Ugh, eww!" yelped Dawn as she leapt away from the smell. "Mom, what are you doing here? And I thought I told you to never use that spell on me again!"
"You were unconscious," declared the woman who was Dawn's mother. "I saved you from these awful people."
"Mom, I wasn't unconscious," said an exasperated Dawn. "I just drained too much of my aura. I'll be fine."
The woman scrutinized her daughter for a moment before relaxing.
"Alright. Now, I just have to find that evil man and lecture him. How could he even think of sending you off on such a dangerous job when you haven't even been learning wizardry for a week yet?"
"Mom, I thought I told you not to storm here and yell."
"How could I not?"
Dawn sighed and walked over to a rather confused Lucas.
"Lucas, that's my mom. Mom, this is Lucas, my teacher-slash-friend."
At that word, Lucas turned a queer look on Dawn.
"Friend? When did that establishment come up?"
Dawn shrugged.
"Oh, well it's nice to meet you," said Johanna, shaking Lucas's hand. "Now, I just have to wait for the idiot – I mean, Professor Rowan."
Knowing that the slipup was no mistake, Dawn rolled her eyes. Lucas simply looked amused as Johanna occupied the seat that Dawn had slept in.
"Who are you calling an idiot, Mrs. Johanna?"
The professor stepped in the door.
"Oh, hello, Professor!" Johanna said brightly as she waltzed over to him. "Now, I just have a question."
"Yes?" asked Rowan, an eyebrow raised.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, SENDING DAWN OUT ON A MISSION LIKE THIS?"
Dawn sighed and pulled Lucas out of the lab as Johanna exploded.
"Let's go do something productive."
"How about getting you a weapon?" suggested Lucas, walking along with his own staff. "I've got a good idea for material that you can use."
"What?"
"There's a certain kind of ice called NeverMeltIce. As you can probably guess, it never melts. It's already magical, and repels heat while boosting the power of ice spells, perfect for you. Of course, it'll also channel aura and make it stronger if we enchant it a little bit."
"Sounds good, but where can we find some?"
Lucas smiled.
"Lucky for you, we just got a shipment to study from Snowpoint City. We can use some of it. But first, let's get some spell books and figure out what you want to do to the ice."
Heading into the library, both wizards browsed the bookshelves and pulled down some volumes. Once they were done, they sat together at the desk with the heap of books and skimmed them.
"Definitely this," said Dawn. "Aura-enhancing. Is that what you did to your staff?"
"Yeah. How about this as well? Or that…"
After a while, they decided to only use two spells; one that would boost aura and one that would strengthen the ice to make it less brittle. Lucas quickly copied the spells as Dawn put the books away.
"Now, we should probably buy some books to bring along. You never know when we might need them," said Lucas.
"Sure," said Dawn.
"We should probably try and cover the basic topics between us both, so let's split up and buy what we think we'll need," said Lucas as they arrived at the bookstore.
Lucas quickly scanned the aisle on elements and pulled a few books down before moving onto the aura section. Dawn, on the other hand, curiously examined a shelf full of books under the category of healing.
After about an hour, the two each had selected ten books they thought they would benefit from and quickly went back to the lab. Upon nearing the building, Dawn clasped her head in exasperation as they heard a familiar voice yelling.
"… and I don't know how you could expect either of them to do such a complicated task! I'll have to go too, and then everything will be chaos!"
"You do not have to go, Johanna."
The bickering did not cease as Dawn and Lucas entered the building. Both Johanna and the professor barely spared them a glance as they found the sample of NeverMeltIce and began to work on it.
"Okay, so what did you have in mind for the weapon shape?" asked Lucas.
"Well, just a small wand, I guess…"
"Alright."
Lucas found a decently sized piece of ice about fifteen inches long and quickly shaved it down until Dawn decided that it was acceptable. Holding it in her hand and tossing it a few times, Dawn nodded.
"Why isn't it cold, though?" asked Dawn.
"Since you lean toward ice spells, you generally are immune to the sensation of 'cold'. Of course, that means heat will be especially hard for you to bear," said Lucas. "Now, let's get to those spells. Here's another lesson today. Some spells require you to make potions. Of course, potions and spells are completely different, but some spells' power lies within something you make. For the aura-enhancer spell, we'll need to do that. The ingredient cupboard is over there, if you ever need it. You read the ingredients, I'll get the stuff."
Dawn took the paper and started listing off ingredients.
"Water, sage, basil, thyme, thigh of chicken, tongue of cow, this sounds like a cooking show!"
"Just keep reading," said Lucas as he placed the ingredients on a counter.
"Seven keys from a grand piano, hydrochloric acid, grass fertilizer, powdered rose petals, rabbit fur, and a piece of the same material as whatever you're applying the spell too, so some NeverMeltIce. That's it."
"Okay," said Lucas, hauling out a cauldron and lighting a fire underneath it. "Come over here, you should practice this."
Dawn began to make the spell, measuring ingredients and dumping them in. Soon enough, the spell was bubbling violently just as the procedure said it would.
"Okay, now we have to add the NeverMeltIce," said Dawn, dropping a piece of it into the cauldron. "And now, I have to mix my aura into it." Dawn dripped some of her magic into the boiling solution, binding it to the spell. "Finally, we end with the piano keys."
Soon, the potion was finished and simmering, awaiting Dawn's wand.
"Just put the wand in the spell," said Lucas. "Hold your wand in it until the spell is completely absorbed."
To Dawn's amazement, the glowing liquid began to collect in her wand the moment the ice touched the potion. Soon enough, the cauldron was empty and Dawn's wand was filled with the spell. After a few minutes, the last traces of it disappeared, leaving the wand normal again.
"Good job on your first potion-spell," said Lucas. "Now let's make the wand a little bit more durable. For this spell, we're not going to make a potion, but rather a piece of parchment."
Taking a rectangular piece of paper, Lucas dipped a brush into magical ink and quickly wrote characters over the paper.
"What I'm doing right now is making a spell matrix, also known as a spell diagram. It's a diagram that activates its magical powers once you input aura," said Lucas finishing off the spell with a small swish. "Put your two index fingers here and pulse the ink with aura."
Dawn did so, and the ink was soon glowing brightly.
"Now, stick it on your wand."
Taking the paper, Dawn wrapped it around the base of the NeverMeltIce. The paper slowly disintegrated and left the ink imbued into the base of the wand.
"There. Now, your wand should be set for now," said Lucas. "I wonder what's going on out there…"
He looked out the room and into the hall; Rowan and Johanna were out of his sight, but he heard a shriek and what sounded like a vase smashing the wall.
"Never mind, I don't want to know."
"Thanks for everything today, Lucas," said Dawn, leaving her mom to destroy the lab.
"No problem. Just make sure you study, okay? We'll need to be ready as soon as possible. For the rest of the week, we'll be learning more magic."
"Okay."
"Get supplies, a bag, and most of all, rest."
"Okay."
"And remind me to never go near you when you fall asleep."
"Okay… Wait, what?"