by Dani Corlee
“Do you need more help?” she asked.
“No, not now. I'd rather make this first check by myself.”
“Good! I'll be back in about an hour. I have something to do now.” She winked and, again in her baby-doll top, she disappeared.
Kim looked at the empty space where Lucille had been until just a few seconds ago. It was just like a fantasy movie. But this wasn't a special effect. This was reality. She shook her head. No time to wonder about magic now. She had a problem to solve, and she thought she was close to the solution.
It took longer than expected, with Lucille popping in more than once to see if she needed help, but at around lunchtime she called Isidora, who arrived with Celeste and Lucille.
“Please, look at the map. This is the residential area. This is the center and just before it, the Magic Club. Here we have the hills. The stickers represent each birth and are placed when and where the family lived. Here, we have the oldest one of the considered period, back in 1995. The boy has powers. Two years later, his sister was born and hasn't any power. In the same period, we have a birth here and here.” She pointed at two different roads nearby. “Both these girls have powers. But the first family moved soon after and the boy who was born here,” she pointed to another place, “hasn't any powers. That is, every baby of families who lived here, apart from one, haven't any powers. The same for this street and this and this.” Kim pointed at many places on the map.
“Who is the exception?” Isidora asked
“Let me see. The witch is called Verbena, and the daughter...”
“Yes, I remember,” Isidora interrupted her. “She had lots of problems at the beginning and was kept in an incubator for at least three months.”
“This might be the answer. I'm pretty sure, but I suppose we should also check the level of powers of those who have them. In any case, this is roughly the impacted zone.” She drew a circle around a portion of the town, the part ending with the hills. The witches stared at the map in complete silence.
Then Isidora broke it, asking “It looks like only those far from the circle had powers.”
“But Abigail's daughter has powers and lives there,” Celeste interrupted, pointing inside the circle.
“Yes, but when the baby was born, she moved to live with her mom, who lives here.” Isidora pointed at a road outside of the circle.
“So, what's the problem over there? An ancient evil spell?” Lucille intervened.
“It doesn't make much sense. Nearly all the communities in the world have the same problem,” Isidora added.
Kim looked at them with a smirk. “No, nothing ancient, for sure. Something modern instead, which affects a large part of the world.” The three witches looked at each other in wonder.
CHAPTER 20
“I've always said cell phone towers can cause serious damage!” Celeste screamed gesticulating wildly. “What did I tell you? I told you, didn't I? I knew it.” She kept on flailing around, breathless.
“Stop it, Celeste! Honestly, sometimes you act like a kid. Nobody is talking about illnesses and surely nobody here is saying those cellular base stations can have those kinds of effects. There's no evidence to suggest such a thing. On the contrary, there is evidence against it. Now, sit down and be quiet. Kim, my dear, please go on.”
“Hmm... yes. That's pretty much all I have discovered. The kids who have shown no witch powers, or not at a significant level, are all concentrated in this area.” She stood up and made a circle with her hand on the right of the map.
“There's something wrong, though.” Celeste spoke slowly. “Some of the kids who live exactly on the boundary of the circle have no powers at all while others who live inside have some powers.”
Isidora looked at her with a look of disapproval. “We'll see about these details later on. Go on, Kim.”
“The problem showed some time after the first station was created here in Springsville. As soon as we understand it better, we could discuss it with other communities and compare the results of our surveys. For now, I can only suppose the waves disturbed the babies. Probably only those who were very little because we have a case of a family moving inside the circle with a six-month-old who developed his powers normally. Those babies were disturbed and created a sort of shield to protect themselves from the waves. Maybe it was just some tickle, who knows? But once the shield is there, the kids don't know how to remove it. They aren't even aware of it.”
“What’ll we do?” Lucille nearly spat out her gum.
“I don't know. But I do believe they have powers. They only need to find them and use them.”
“It's a great discovery, my dear. Probably our race was going to be extinguished sooner or later, and you came as the Queen to help us. The prophecy was right.” Isidora smiled, looking at Kim.
A sound of quick steps distracted them. Then there were loud knocks at the door which was abruptly opened wide by Ravyn, who told them, “Grandma, they have just called me. That rascal Apharis did it again, and without any protection tried to fly from the slide. He fell badly and Corinne, who was in charge, couldn't do anything for him. He was too quick and took her by surprise.”
“Where was he hurt?”
“No, nothing bad, I think. He hit his ankle but we'd better call an ambulance and get him to the hospital. We don't know if he hit somewhere else. Taryn scanned him and says she cannot see anything broken.”
“Scanned him? What do you mean?” Kim asked, puzzled.
“Uh, she developed the ability to feel bones. She was a kid when she fell down and broke her arm and she started seeing it. She is able to see everybody's bones if she concentrates hard enough.”
Kim made a face. “An ability I surely could do without, even though it could be useful in my job...”
“Let's go to the playground and check him while we wait for the ambulance.”
The poor kid was lying on the green, flowery carpet but wasn't looking too bad. He was smiling and trying to answer all the people who were crowding around him.
“Oh, my dear. Let him breathe!” Isidora exclaimed as soon as they entered the playground.
Adults and children moved so they could approach the boy. Kim kneeled down and looked at him. “Where does it hurt?” she asked. He replied by pointing to his ankle.
“Hmm... not good,” Kim said, shaking her head. Ankles were fragile and she hoped the pain was due to the hit, not to a broken bone. She looked at the kid carefully, touching him in some places to understand if there was something broken. Then she paled and touched her forehead, trying to keep her hair back. She closed and opened her eyes and put her hand to her chest.
“What's the matter, my dear?”
“I think, I think... I don't know. I don't feel well,” she gasped. “I cannot see right and I...”
“Come here, you turned as pale as a ghost!” Isidora added, kneeling down to fan Kim's face with her hands.
“No, I'm okay.” Tears were slowly wetting her face.
“I can see something. It has never happened before, but I can see...”
The kid looked very serious, and terrified. “Am I dying? I promise not to disobey anymore. I knew I shouldn't have jumped from so high but it was fun!” he screamed and sobbed.
“No, nobody is dying, don't worry,” Kim murmured. “You don't even need to go to the hospital, but be careful next time, will you?”
The kid tried to smile and dried his tears with a dirty hand. “May I go now?” he asked.
“No, you need to rest a little more.”
Kim stood up and moved away, taking Isidora by her arm.
“I knew about them but I didn't know what to think.”
“What?” Isidora looked puzzled.
“I could see beautiful colors around the kid, and things I suppose are Chakras, but I've never really been involved in these sorts of things and I'm not sure. They were beautiful, and I got scared... The vision faded quickly.” She started sobbing. “The kid hasn't much power, has he?”
<
br /> “He hasn't any at all, I'm afraid. That's why he often jumps, because he wants to fly like his brother does...”
“I could see the shield as well. I think we can work on them. If they are part of their auras, I'm sure there's a way to clear them.”
“Great, my dear!” Isidora exclaimed with a smile and tenderly hugged Kim.
“Let me know how we can help you with understanding how to clean the shield. Do you need to see each witch with no powers separately? Do you need a room to be used as a doctor's office, with an examination table?”
“Yes, that could help.” Kim looked thoughtful. “Maybe also a chart with Chakras and meridians... those kinds of things. Is there a library here? I haven't had time to explore all the things this town offers. I suppose I should go and look for some books about this matter because I don't know much about it. What else? Probably a lamp, one of those types where you can adjust the level of light. I'm still not sure about the best way to visualize the shields.”
“Good, just give us some time and we'll prepare everything. Don't worry about the books. One of our members works in the local library. We will connect to their database and we'll have her teleport all the books you need.”
“Sounds perfect,” Kim agreed. “I'd like to go home now and rest for a while. I feel overwhelmed. These last three weeks have been exhausting. Not to mention the fact that this morning, my ex-husband told me he will be here soon and take Aurora for a while. He is often abroad for work and we haven't heard from him very often lately, due to the time difference. He is coming back to the U.S. in a few days and wants to take Aurora. I'm not arguing with it, it is his right, but I'm not happy and I'm also afraid Aurora might do some magic in front of him. That would be a disaster.”
“Oh, dear! We should have started to train Aurora immediately. Don't worry. We cannot magically force anyone to behave in a certain way, but we can hide her powers for a while. We can create a reversal spell so that any time she does some magic, it is immediately reversed. That is, it doesn't show. But we need to talk to her about it. We never want to do anything against anyone's will. Not even against a little one.”
Kim sighed with relief. “I feel better now. I was really very concerned about it. It is... complicated. It wasn't an easy marriage, and I really didn't want it to end with a divorce. But now I don't want to give him any reason to argue about how I raise Aurora.”
Isidora nodded. “Go home now. We will take care of Aurora while you rest. And we'll talk about it with her. She seems to have a very special relationship with my granddaughter, Hylee. I will ask her to tell Aurora about the need to hide her powers, and tomorrow we'll start her training at the school.”
CHAPTER 21
“How are things going?” Lucille asked, entering Kim's new office.
“I'm tired, but quite satisfied. I've studied a lot in the last few days and I've seen many of those without powers. I made some progress in clearing the shields. I feel the more time that passes, the more my ability grows. I need to talk to Isidora and decide what we want to do. I cannot cleanse all the unpowereds of the world!”
“Come on, let's go to her office so you two can talk.”
When Kim knocked on the door and opened it a little to peek inside, Isidora was talking to her crystal ball. She waved Kim inside and to sit.
“Kim, my dear, any news?” she asked, after ending her conversation.
“I think I know how to clean the shields now. Two of the unpowereds have been totally cleaned, and I made some progress on some others. I just want to understand how to proceed. Within a few days, I'll start my job at the hospital and I won't be able to spend as much time here.”
“I know. I was talking with my sister. She lives in another community, in Paris.” She rolled her eyes. “She fell in love with a French guy and moved many years ago. I told her about the situation. Otherwise, we have been keeping it secret till now. I wanted to be sure about the fact the shields can be cleaned and as you tell me now, we have no doubts about it anymore. But this cannot be a full-time job for you, and surely we can’t have all the unpowereds coming here. Do you think you could train other witches to do the same?”
“Until now, it seems nobody can see what I see. Do you have any healers in the community?”
“Healers? We are all healers, in one way or the other.”
“I mean, any people who can see or feel the auras, the Chakras. Any Reiki practitioners, for example.”
“Uhm...we don't have any here, but I'm sure we'll find them in other communities. Shouldn't these people have seen the shields already?”
“I'm not sure. I suppose I saw them because in a way I was expecting to see them. And I knew how they would look. I think that healers, once they know what to look for, could easily see them.”
“It's time to inform the other communities. I believe the best thing to do is to have some healers here so that you can show them what you did. We don't want them to experiment by themselves. Making the unpowereds regain their powers is too important to have the healers try with no control. I'll organize a general meeting with all the communities for this afternoon.”
“So,” Isidora said aloud, trying to make her voice stand out above the buzz which had started after the complete silence that had accompanied her announcement. “I think the situation is clear and all the decisions made. You all have two days to prepare yourselves, check how many healers you have in your communities, their availability and propose their candidacy. As already explained, we are looking for about seven experienced healers to start. Once we are sure those people can do what the Queen is doing, she will meet and train other healers. We'll also check if the trained healers can train other healers. I'll see you all in two days’ time.”
“You look so tired, Grandma! Have some tea and rest a little,” Ravyn said, offering her the cup of tea which had just appeared in her hand.
“Yes, I am. The meeting seemed endless. Did you see how everybody was excited? Kim, I mean the Queen, has really saved our race!”
CHAPTER 22
Kim kept rubbing her hands. She hated being the center of everyone's attention. Until now, even though she had to undergo many meetings with the community, they had protected her a lot from other groups that wanted to meet her, and apart from a few small meetings made through crystal balls, her contacts had been few.
But now she would have to talk in public, and although the witches arriving from many parts of the world were only seven, she felt nervous and excited. With a quick glance at her watch, she started walking up and down the conference room. They would be there in a minute. She mentally brushed up on all she had learned lately. She visualized the Chakras and the gray shields, which stood out gloomy against the rainbow colors of the aura. She had heard many times about people seeing an aura around bodies but she had never really thought about it and she had never taken a position whether to believe in it or not.
Now she could see them if she concentrated. She could recognize healthy people and happy people, she could understand if somebody recently had a loss, she could even see the level of self-esteem. It was fascinating, but scary. Had someone told her only a few weeks before how her life would have changed, she wouldn't have believed them. She had fought against all this at first. She only wanted a peaceful life with Aurora. She didn't want to accept anything strange, anything so out of the ordinary. And even now, a part of her kept saying that magic was something only for weird old women.
Yet she was here now, seeing many people doing wonders, things she could easily do, too. Still not really believing it.
She heard some noise outside the room and soon after, Lucille entered, out of breath.
“Oh, what are you doing there? Please, sit down. They need to see a Queen!”
“Okay, okay! Don't get upset, or you'll make me even more nervous than I am already.”
Kim sat on the “throne” that had been decided for her: a comfortable business chair behind a desk. On the wall behind her, there were two
pictures showing Chakras and meridians. She smoothed her dress and put her hair on one side. Even with a simple cotton dress she looked gorgeous, but she had never been the kind of person to strut about.
She was looking at her hands, still shaking, when the expected witches entered the room.
She couldn't help a gulp as soon as they entered. The first witch coming toward her was the most beautiful woman she had ever met. Tall, slim, the perfect body of a model. Her skin was dark as ebony, setting off her almond eyes, full lips, and long curly hair, and she had the movements of a feline. “She looks like a queen,” Kim gasped. When she realized she was staring, open-mouthed, she looked at the other people entering. The second woman looked like a snowman, the same round face, the same round body and legs you could barely see under her long yellow caftan. Her reddish, wild hair, freckles and large body made her nearly as striking as the panther who was standing near her. The third witch was a great contrast, an Asian, tiny girl with long, shiny black hair and a face which looked painted in porcelain. Despite her beautiful and delicate features, her eyes were fiery and she looked like a very self-determined person.
