Maddie's Perspective
"So, round two," Maddie said. "Do you need my zodiac sign for this magic reading? I'm a Basilisk."
Gio and Shen giggled. Reggie sat up straighter. "I, Prince Reginald Hart," he announced, "have mastered the magic of my cards."
He pulled a card and tossed it up. It spun in the air, releasing a shower of snow on their heads before it disappeared, returning to Reggie's hands. It was blank again. Shen and Maddie were shocked while Gio and Reggie fixed their hair, dusting away the snow.
"In your face, Maddie and Shen." Reggie said proudly.
"See?" Gio said. "I knew your witchy muse would help."
Reggie blushed.
"So, reading." Giovanna said firmly. "Our futures for this year."
Reggie pulled a few more cards, thinking hard about what he wanted them to do. Who he wanted them to divine the future for. He focused and laid out a card before each of them, then a fifth one off to the side.
The cards began to paint themselves somewhat like a watercolor painting. Reggie started with his own. It was...
"The Squirrel of Hearts," Reggie announced with a smile. "That's me, I can see Papa in the background of it." The squirrel disappeared. The image became a scene of a princess in a glass coffin, a prince crying outside of it, trying to get to her but unable to kiss her and break the spell.
"Are you gonna get hit with a sleeping curse?" Shen wondered.
"No, it feels different. The Pained Lovers." Reggie said. "That card makes me feel like...tortured or tragic love. Someone gets hurt and neither of them can fix their issues."
"Hmmmm," Gio mused. "I wonder what that could possibly mean." She looked at him with a dangerous smile. When Reggie scratched his head uncomfortably, she said, "Maddie next."
Reggie touched the card and the image appeared. A hand reaching into a pocket full of golden coins. "The Grasping Hand." The image faded, becoming a...a path with what seemed to be dozens of roads that all led to different places. Orchards, beaches, forests, mountains, oceans, everything.
"I liked the coins better." Maddie said apathetically .
"The Crossroads. It seems to me that it hints at a conflict." Reggie said. "Indecision, options, a thousand opportunities with a thousand different outcomes. You'll have a lot of choices to make."
Of course hers would be some generic nonsense. She might as well have checked her horoscope. All of this was pointless. Going to Auradon, this reading, listening to Gio boss everyone around.
"Can you make it more specific?" Gio asked. "Options and decisions. That's not a psychic reading."
"I'm not psychic, Gio," Reggie said. "I can stop the cards if you don't want me to--"
"Don't be dramatic," she waved him on. "Shen next."
Reggie touched it and the image solidified. A warrior with a glaive running across a battlefield. "The Dauntless."
"Sick." Shen said happily. "The cards know I'm awesome."
Gio poked him playfully and he chuckled. But the image faded and revealed a new one. A worse one. The Dauntless was lying on the floor, ten warriors in armor the same color as his holding the swords embedded in his back.
"The Ten of Swords," Reggie mumbled. "A classic one in regular tarot decks about hard times and betrayal from unexpected places."
Shen glared at Reggie. "Did you make it say this?"
Gio put a hand on his arm soothingly. "He wouldn't do that just to mess with you, he knows it wouldn't be good for his health." She kissed him. "This is why we're doing this. We want to be prepared for the future. And since no one in this room would betray you, we know to be on guard with these AKs."
Now that he was calm, Reggie could release the breath he'd been holding. Shen looked like he could break a mountain apart. And Reggie was definitely not tougher than a mountain. Gio looked at him imploringly and he tapped another card.
It revealed a beautiful blonde woman applying lipstick at a vanity with a bright smile. "The Diva." Reggie announced. Maddie burst out laughing louder than anyone had ever heard her do...anything.
Gio ignored it as Maddie tried to catch her breath, looking at the card and laughing all over again.
The card rippled as it shifted, revealing a woman at a loom. There were threads trailing down to the people beneath her, connecting them all to her loom as she continued spinning more and more threads. "The Proud Weaver."
"What's it mean?" Gio asked.
"It's mostly a card of caution." Reggie said nervously. "Weaving is a complex task since the slightest mistake can lead to a major setback if the threads tangle or anything. The weaver has to be careful with all the threads she's weaving around those people or--"
"They'll tangle and her work might be compromised." Gio said.
"Exactly that," Reggie said. "But she looks like she knows what she's doing, she looks so focused."
"Oh, I'm sure she knows what she's doing." Maddie said.
Gio shot her a glare. "What's the fifth one for? A special someone in your life?" She smirked when she added that. She kept hinting at something...Maddie just didn't know what.
Reggie blushed, voice cracking, "No, it's..." he tapped the card and it revealed a woman in a beautiful dress and tiara looking up at a star. "The Hopeful Heroine."
"Who's that one?" Shen asked.
"It feels similar to my favorite card. The Fool." Reggie said.
"Oh, I wonder why you like that one." Maddie quipped, just because he made it so easy.
Reggie ignored that. "The fool represents the one to go on a journey or a hero in a tale sometimes. The Hopeful Heroine seems like that, wondering when the stars will reveal her destiny. I think it's the heroes in the story that are opposite us as villains."
"I followed most of that." Shen said. Maddie chuckled. She hated listening to witches and their cryptic explanations.
The image faded to reveal a young girl skipping through a field of flowers. Then she grew, becoming a teen running, then a young adult jogging, an adult walking, an elderly woman ambling, then a young girl skipping again.
Reggie considered the card as the girl kept aging and de-aging. "The Passage of Time, I think, but I don't know what it could mean. It feels weird."
"That's what's weird about this?" Maddie asked.
She looked at Gio and she was still as a jaguar about to pounce. Eyes staring at the card. "I know what it means." She stood, going to the door and opening it. "We're done here. Boys, out."
"Rude, Gio." Shen said. "I'm hurt."
She giggled. "Sorry, I need to find a decent cosmetics shop around here. Maddie's mom probably wants some. We'll make it a field trip."
Shen glanced at Maddie and she nodded with a smile. "Yeah, we're besties apparently." Shen kissed Gio's cheek and left the room.
Reggie's cards appeared in his hand again and he put them away before leaving the room. "Bye, ladies."
"Wait, Red," Gio said. He stopped. She whispered, "Nice work today. I need you to brew a few potions for me. Figure out how to do that from your witchy muse."
Maddie noticed his hands start shaking, but he nodded. He nodded politely and she shut the door behind him.
"We have to plan a shopping trip?" Maddie asked.
"Whatever," Gio said, plopping down on her mattress. "I love that you know when to lie. It's a great trait in a bestie."
Maddie retrieved the headphones she got in her welcome pack and tried her best to pretend the rest of the world didn't exist.
Wes's Perspective
Wes was writing an essay for English when Reggie showed up at the Enchanted Lake, filled with water again. He put away his notebook and looked up, gauging the time by the sun. Nowhere near his curfew. Unfortunate problem of his recent crime sprees. He had to be on campus way earlier than his peers.
"Cheers, Wes." Reggie said with a smile. "No Viv today?"
"She believes we're flirting with each other every time we speak and it disgusts her." Wes said with a roll of his eyes.
"Well," Reggie said charmingly. "I happen to be flirting most of the time we speak."
Wes looked away and grabbed the things he'd laid out behind himself. "I know you said you were curious about potions."
Reggie chuckled at his reaction. Wes grabbed an empty vase and a bouquet of red roses, handing the flowers to Reggie. "I'm flattered."
Wes flushed. "I didn't mean that to be romantic."
"Such a pity then," Reggie sniffed the bouquet. "Red roses are my favorite, I'd love them from a special someone."
Looking Reggie in the eye finally, Wes smirked. "Maybe I did mean to give them to you romantically. You do look...what word would you use?"
"Fit?" Reggie suggested.
"Fit and smashing." Wes said with a grin.
"You look rather smashing as well," Reggie said. "What's on the agenda today, Mr. West."
"Well," Wes said. "You were talking about potions and it's one of the more complex aspects of magic because of the calculations and complex instructions. It took me months to master. But it's simple when you get straight to it."
"So what's the magic secret?" Reggie asked.
Wes began to remove his shoes and roll up his pants. Reggie did the same, feeling the tiny stones near the edge of the lake under his feet.
"Potions, like all traditional magic, is just about taking the magic that lives within other things--rocks, water, plants, animals--and repurposing it." Wes grabbed the vase and walked closer to the water. "The magic then becomes slightly more flexible. You can get it to do something similar to what it's used to."
"So giving it a new job kinda?" Reggie asked, suppressing a shiver when he felt the cool water of the lake go up to his ankles.
"Exactly that." Wes said. He closed his eyes and Reggie followed his lead. "The one thing that makes us witches is that we can feel things like this. The water is full of love and it wants to cleanse and heal all things. The pebbles have taken on some of that energy."
"Which helps us how?"
"The natural world doesn't have to help us." Wes tapped Reggie's shoulder and his eyes flew open. "But we can get it to sometimes. Let's trade, put some pebbles in the vase and add some lake water."
They switched and Reggie added the stones and water to the vase. Wes led him to a stone they could sit on. He still held the flowers.
"Now that you're familiar with the lake water and what it's meant to do, you can reach out to it and cast a spell." Wes instructed. He grabbed Reggie's shoulder. "Vras aquim encanta florial te lumios eternum. It'll enchant the flowers to bloom forever. I'll lead the intent, it shouldn't get me in trouble if you're doing the rest."
"Is that really useful?" Reggie asked.
"It's a simple potion. You've gotta start somewhere to build confidence," Wes said. "Now go on. Proper pronunciation and remember the vras calls to the magic like the school bells call us to class."
Reggie cuffed his shirt a bit to keep it dry. He reached into the vase and touched the stones. He really could feel the magic in them. Warm and fluttery, like a hug from Papa. He reached out to it and chanted "Vras aquim encanta florial san lumios eternum"
The water glowed a faint red color for a moment before returning to the regular clear it was before.
"Did it work?" Reggie asked, unsure, removing his arm.
Wes passed the bouquet over. "For you, master witch."
Reggie took the flowers with a smile. He added them to the vase and gasped when the roses spread in a wider, prettier display than before.
"Gorgeous," Wes said. "And there's a surprise."
"What?"
Wes stared at the flowers. "Well, you mentioned you didn't like to sleep when it's dark. So, they'll glow when it's dark. And the magic from the lake will be soothing and--"
"Really?" Reggie asked, eyes welling up.
"Sorry if I overstepped," Wes began, but Reggie hugged him.
"No problem," Reggie said, a tear falling down his face.
Wes smiled, enjoying the feeling. "I just want you to be happy."
Reggie looked at him and his face fell.
"Did I say some--"
Reggie just stood up with the vase in his hands and started to back away. "I'm sorry," Reggie said. And he ran. He literally ran. And left his shoes, blazer, backpack, everything. He ran. And, for a second that passed too quickly to be real, Wes felt sad, and hurt...and angry.