Chapter 9: First Spell

"Come with us."

Jacob then walked up to the wall of bark, felt around for a moment, then slid a part of the wall large enough to serve as a door. He stepped to the side and gestured for them to go in, which they did.

"This is a room for training," he explained to Riley as she walked in. "Ever since the Spiral has become shrouded in darkness, Bartleby fashioned another part to the Wizard City Spiral Chamber- a space to train."

"Train? Train in what?" Riley asked as she walked into the room. The word that immediately came to her mind when she observed her surroundings was box. The room's walls were designed so it was fashioned into a completely squared room, with no furniture spread about whatsoever. It was as if someone had designed it but had forgotten to come back to it.

Ian smiled as he walked in after her. "Magic. I'm glad we have a new place to train- the one where Sestiva and I practiced was good, but when the darkness-"

Riley's breath snagged when she heard the word, 'Sestiva' come out of his mouth. She spun on her heels and shot him an accusing look. "What do you mean, 'where Sestiva and I practiced'?" Was he talking about that same blue-haired chick that had attacked her back on Earth? Because if so…

Crimson decided on settling on Ian's cheeks. "Yeah. She's sort of my sister."

For a moment, all she could do was stare, unwilling to come to terms with the realization. First Ian had a girlfriend, now that psychotic bluenette was his sister?!

She was liking him less and less.

"I know you're new to magic, Riley," Nick interrupted, preventing her from smacking Ian for being Sestiva's sister, "but you've gotta learn and you've gotta learn fast. Alyssa will show you the basics first, since she's the best at casting spells out of all of us."

"Nick, I'm a horrible teacher!" Alyssa protested. But she found herself walking towards Riley despite her complaint.

"All right, so casting spells is relatively simple," the diviner began. "First you gather the energy deep inside you, then you give it form. Like this-" she took a deep breath and etched a glowing purple symbol into the air, "then release it." She tapped her wand against the symbol, and in turn, it released, offering a purple cobra in exchange. The purple cobra quickly vanished with a flick of her hand.

Alyssa spun around and flashed Riley a smile. "You try."

All Riley did was stare at her. As if it was that simple!

But she had no choice but to do as she said. If she wanted to bring Sabrina back to life…

Riley relaxed her shoulders, summoned a deep inhale, closed her eyes, then tried doing just as Alyssa had said and reached out for some deep, inmost energy or whatever.

She kept looking, looking…

Nothing.

Try again, she urged herself. 'Course you're not gonna get it right on your first try.

But as time passed, she couldn't get it right on her second, third, fourth, fifth, or even her twentieth try. Before she knew it, almost an hour had passed and she still had nothing- at this rate, Grace, Ian, Alyssa and Jacob had all decided to give it up and practice a bit on their own. Only Nick remained, still cheering her on, which was appreciated at first, but over time it just felt as if he was mocking her.

She couldn't take it anymore. Her gut reeled back as if she had been stabbed and gave a frustrated cry.

"It's not working!" Riley yelled. Everyone dispelled their creations and turned to look at her. Her mind working furiously and not knowing exactly what to do, she shook her head like a madman and stood up, beginning to stomp out of the room. "You guys have the wrong girl!"

"Wait!" Nick stood up as well and lunged after Riley. "Don't give up just yet!"

She threw her head over her shoulder, her eyes flashing a warning. "This… this is crazy!" The words fumbled out of her mouth.

Jacob sighed. "Look- you can't just leave. We need a theurgist if we want to restore the Spiral, and that theurgist is you."

Riley stopped walking and stood her ground, balling her fists. "Theurgist, theurgist, theurgist!" The words were spat out. "Look, the sight of all that black stuff was shocking, but right now, I don't care! If you guys can't find a theurgist- well, not my problem! You just want to-"

She halted in the middle of her substance when she felt an unfamiliar swelling gather deep inside her.

Her muscles relaxed, slowly identifying this unfamiliar feeling- like a deep tingling at the very bottom of her stomach.

Was this…

One more try.

Riley's mouth enclosed around air, not quite inhaling. She closed her eyes, readjusted her footing, and attempted to steady herself from her outburst.

Focus, she told herself. It really does look like these guys need your help… and Sabrina needs it, too.

Her throat tightened at the sheer memory of her. Underneath their eyelids her pupils hardened, outwardly recognizable by her eyelids narrowing. She remembered Alyssa's instructions and began to gather this energy bit by bit, pulling it upwards, upwards, upwards…

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, immediately finding what appeared to be green sparkles bordering her hands. The feeling was mounting so quickly that it nearly threw her body off-balance. She faintly heard someone yell for a wand…

Something was jammed into Riley's hand shortly- a stick, except it looked a bit more polished than a normal stick would-

Before she knew it, the green sparkles faded into Riley's skin. The same green sparkles materialized at the wand, then burst out of the stick in a flash of green.

Once out of the wand, the green quickly melded into something… bizarre… Riley didn't quite know what to call it. A little green thing, somewhat reminiscent of a human, with a violin and wings. It chuckled as it played a bit of music, and this bit of music made Nick flinch.

After the little green creature disappeared, no one spoke. No one or nothing moved- nothing but Riley's lips.

What she had done… it was magic. Magic. Magic, which most people on earth didn't believe in, which she had thought was impossible…

But it wasn't.

All this power… she was a wizard.

A theurgist!

Never before had a wave emotion overcome her as much as this one. She did it! She had performed a spell, just in the Harry Potter books, in all the movies she had seen! She was a wizard…

She could revive Sabrina!

Suddenly she felt as if she were ready to take on anything, anything at all, and nothing could stop her. A laugh erupted out of her lips, uneasy at first, then gradually building and gathering power.

"I… I did it!" Riley cheered. She jumped into the air, doing a brief twirl. "You guys were right… I really am a wizard!"

Ian was the first one to join her. "Nice job! Your first spell!"

Nick had a smug green on his face. "Toldja you could do it."

Alyssa shrugged. "It's just an imp, but good!"

Jacob nodded briskly. "Congratulations."

"Guys… I hate to break the moment, but there's a problem."

Grace's voice called everyone to attention and tore the cheering to pieces. Her form was hunched over something far back in a corner.

"…This isn't good."

The formerly joyous color drained from Riley's face as Alyssa asked, "What is it?"

"I picked up Valdus's location." Grace showed everyone a small device- something that could have easily been from Earth and reminded Riley of a GPS with the way it showed Valdus as a red dot.

"I thought you guys didn't have any technology," she noted. "Doesn't magic belong in medieval lands and whatnot?"

"Grace is, like you, from Earth," Ian explained, "and she has a pretty good grip on the way technology works as well. Her technology skills were very useful for finding you."

She continued before Riley could say anything to that. "Valdus has one more on his side- last time I checked, it was just him and Sestiva. Not only that, but they're heading somewhere… for a bank, I think. And in that bank is something that almost radiates power."

Alyssa and Jacob exchanged worried looks. Ian shuffled his feet when she mentioned Sestiva. Nick tensed.

"…This isn't good, is it?" Grace looked up and dared to ask the question to all of them.

Nick shook his head. "No, you're right. This doesn't look good at all."

Grace looked at the novice theurgist. "I believe it's already time to put what little skills you have to the test."