All the four nodded. David went to the canvas first. The painting started to change slowly. Once its change was finished, it displayed a prodigious family. Their backs were turned and they were all facing a sunset. Umpteen warm colors were used for the sunset. There were different shades of orange, amber, and cerise.
Next, Vanessa went. The painting changed until it showed a girl standing on the peak of a tall mountain. She had her back turned and was facing a cloudless sky. The peak was very high up and the sky was a vast expanse. The only color it used was a light azure.
After her, Olivia walked forward. After the painting changed for her, it showed a lion. The lion had a fierce face with sharp claws. It looked very strapping. The painting was considerably detailed. A shade of orange was used for the lion’s fur, and if you looked closely, you could see each strand of its mane.
Finally, Eric stepped forward. Once the painting changed, he saw four kids sitting underneath an overgrown tree with their backs turned. The tree used several tones of green for the leaves. The trunk was beefy and used a rich shade of brown. Once Eric walked away from the painting, it disappeared and the canvas was plain again.
“What do our pictures mean?” Eric inquired.
Hale smiled. “We can only really know once we receive what it is that we want. And when we do, only we will know what our painting symbolizes.”
“I didn’t realize that there was so much magic hidden from us,” Vanessa commented.
“Magic is everywhere. We just have to look a little harder to see it.” Hale grinned.
Hale led the four back into the living room and they all sat down on the couches.
Mr. Hale spoke, “I know that you still have questions and I promise I will answer them all and tell you why you are here, but I first want to show you Magia, your home. So do you have any other things you want to know about Magia?”
Olivia looked at the lights on the ceiling and a lit up lamp on a counter.
“How are things powered here?”
Mr. Hale smiled. “I think there is a much better place for your question to be answered, Olivia.”
Chapter Eight
The Magic Factory
Hale took the four out of the apartment and out of the building. He led them to where his car was parked. Once everyone got in, he drove for a very long time. Crow City looked very different in the daytime than at night, numerous stores were open and more people were walking around.
“Where are we going?” Vanessa asked impatiently.
“You’ll see when we get there,” Mr. Hale twinkled.
“Sometimes, I wonder why we can’t just get some answers whenever we ask a question,” Vanessa grumbled.
David laughed. “Magia is not only a planet of magic, but it’s also a planet of patience.”
Mr. Hale kept driving until they had reached near the edge of Crow City. Mr. Hale stopped near an enormous factory. Next to the factory was a multitude of fields. Growing on the fields were some strange plants that the four couldn’t see too well from far away. However, they did see a strange, faint purple glow from where they were.
Hale stationed his car in the parking lot along with many others. They all got out and started walking towards the factory. Once they had reached the doors, they saw a sign: Factory tours admission: 20 crowtins per person.
Mr. Hale winked. “Crowtins are one of Magia’s main currencies.”
They entered the building. The main entrance was very imposing. The floor was made of marble and the ceiling was very high. A scintillating, crystal chandelier hung. In the corner was the front desk. Mr. Hale led the four over there. Sitting behind the desk was a lady waiting for them.
“Please pay the twenty crowtins now for admission,” she said politely.
Mr. Hale reached into his pocket and pulled out some bills of cash that all had crows on them. He gave them to the lady.
“Thank you and I hope you enjoy the tour. Please wait over there for the tour guide.” She pointed to a line of people waiting.
“Look it’s Mr. Hale! The Vice President of the agency,” a man said.
Soon everyone turned to face Hale and the children.
“Hello everyone, I am here to help these fine children understand how things are powered here,” Hale answered.
“Please get in front of us, we don’t want to be a burden to a VIP such as yourself,” a woman said and the rest of the people in line agreed.
“Oh please, I can’t do that,” Mr. Hale answered.
“We insist,” said another man.
The rest of the people in line allowed Hale and the four to get in front of them.
“Wow, Mr. Hale is famous,” David said to the four.
“He is after only the Vice President of the world-wide government,” Vanessa uttered sarcastically.
After a while, a lady wearing a professional blue dress approached the group. As she ambled forward, the four realized she was a familiar face.
“Isn’t that Laura the receptionist?” Vanessa whispered.
“No, I’m pretty sure she said her name was Lauren,” said Eric.
“Hello and welcome to the Corvo Power Factory. My name is Laurel and please ignore my name tag because I didn’t replace it yet. Anyways, I will be your tour guide today. As we go on this tour, you will all learn how Magia gets its power and will be told the story of how we discovered power. Thank you and I hope you enjoy today’s tour,” she said politely.
Laurel then led them all into the factory. The first room they entered was stupendous. There were several floors which had multitudinous workers. The room was also packed with various strange machines. Crates filled with the purple flowers that were being grown in the fields next to the factory were being taken in. The machines automatically took out the flowers from the crates.
Laurel spoke, “As you can see, these machines, known as flosers, are taking out the same purple flowers grown in the fields next to our factory. However, you might be wondering why these flowers are so pivotal or how they have anything to do with power. On Earth, the technology there is powered by something the mortals call, electricity. On Magia, however, things are powered by magic itself. We all have magic in our souls, magic that allows us to do anything. This is called Soul Magic and is the most powerful type of magic. However, it is much easier for us to just let technology do the work. This technology is very advanced, and the only thing that is capable of powering it is magic. You might be wondering how that is possible. Besides soul magic, there are alternative magical sources. Magic taken from these sources is called Extracted Magic because it is extracted from the source. The most dynamic source of extracted magic found in Magia is the purple flower you are looking at called the Corvo Rose. One petal is vigorous enough to power an entire mortal city for a decade! However, as I said before, magian technology is a lot more advanced than mortals’ so that is why we require many flowers. To keep us from running out of Corvo Roses, Magia has a law that states that every rose used must have another rose planted to replace it. This keeps us from running out.”
“Wow,” whispered Vanessa, speechless.
The flosers removed all petals from the flowers and put them in different crates. The crates were then sent to the next room by interminable conveyor belts. Laurel took the people there.
The next room was just as massive as the one before. It too had its fair share of unusual machines. However, unlike the room before, this one had many cumbersome containers filled with a variegated substance. The machines were taking each petal and dropping them into the spacious containers filled with chemicals by using the conveyor belts. Once the petals were put into the containers and taken out, nothing remained of the petals except for glowing orbs.
“As you can see, the machines are taking the petals and putting them into a chemical called V-1511NU, more commonly know as floraxium. Floraxium melts the outside
of the petal to leave the orb. These orbs are called corvits. The corvits are the magic that is stored inside the petals of the flowers. This is how we remove the magic,” Laurel announced.
Other machines put the orbs in individual glass boxes and sent the boxes to the next room on the conveyor belts.
Laurel led the people to where the boxes were being sent. In the next room, the machines were opening the lids of the boxes and took out the corvits. They then put each on one prime conveyor belt. The conveyor belt led to the largest of all the machines. The machine crushed each of the corvits to create a bright purple liquid.
“This machine you see is called a macerater. The macerater crushes the corvits into oil. The oil is used to power all of Crow City,” said Laurel.
Laurel led the group through more rooms and explained how the oil was converted to power. After the last room of workers, Laurel led the group through a corridor into another circular room. In the middle of the room was a stone statue of a crow holding a Corvo Rose in its beak.
“So now you know how the magic is extracted from the flowers and is converted into power, but now let me tell you how the roses were discovered. It’s a magnificent story about how we discovered Corvo Roses, the start of Crow City, and why Crows are so respected in Magia. It’s called The Tale Of The Crow’s Discovery.”
“Thank goodness we finally get to know why crows are so important here,” Vanessa murmured.
“Shh, she is starting to tell us the story,” Eric whispered, he didn’t want to miss anything.
Laurel started speaking, “Many years ago, a man named Tom Vesper decided to explore the continent of Cornix that had just been discovered. Cornix was a vast land with unknown mysteries waiting to be solved. Magians barely knew what creatures were here, how mountainous the land was, or even if it was safe to settle on. So Tom set out for answers, and riches. He, along with many men, traveled across the continent. Cornix was an amalgamation of heavenly landscapes. There were crystal-clear lakes, lush green forests, plains covered with vibrant flowers, and much more. Despite all of this, the explorers were disappointed. The men wanted to find wealth in natural resources, but after days of exploring, they found none. The expedition seemed hopeless and none of the men thought that anything would happen. Little did they know how erroneous they were. One day, while the men were resting underneath a tree near an endless mountain range (which nowadays is known as the Vesper Mountain Range), Tom saw a crow flying towards them. It landed on one branch of the tree to rest. After some time, it started cawing. It then flew off of the branch and started flying around Tom. He didn’t know what the crow was trying to do. The confounding bird then stopped circulating Tom and flew towards the mountains. Tom couldn’t explain it, but something inside of him told him that he should follow the crow. The bird flew for hours and Tom followed it tirelessly, until it finally stopped in front of a cave in the highest mountain. The crow entered the cave and Tom went along with it. Once he entered the mountains, he was astonished at what he saw. There was a magnificent array of caverns with purple roses growing all over them. The crow flew over to the flowers and Tom continued to follow it. The roses had a bright purple glow which mesmerized Tom when he looked at them. Tom went back to get the rest of the men and brought them to the caverns. They all agreed that this truly was a miracle. They all gathered as many flowers as they could hold and stored them in their sacks. They then took them back to their camp. At night, they created a small fire to cook their food. After they had finished eating, they put out the fire, but a few embers were still on the wood. Tom then picked up a sack filled with the roses but accidentally dropped one onto the wood. Suddenly a massive, roaring conflagration was created. The wood was already burnt out so it couldn’t have created a fire by itself. It took a lot of effort to put out the blazing flames. The men soon learned that the flowers had magic stored in them. Tom named the flowers Corvo Roses and he founded Crow City, which he named because of the crow that led him to the flowers. Crow City grew to be the largest city and the capital of Magia. This was all because of the discovery of the Corvo Roses that became the most powerful source of extracted magic. So now you know how things are powered in Magia and why Crows are very respected here. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed the tour.”
As the four walked out of the factory with Mr. Hale, Vanessa spoke, “You know, I would have never expected that everything here is powered by flowers.”
Mr. Hale laughed. “That just goes to prove that, like I said, nothing is as it seems.”
Chapter Nine
The First Lesson
Mr. Hale drove the four back to his penthouse. Once they entered his living room, they all plopped onto a couch.
Vanessa spoke, “Can you tell us now, why we are here?”
The only thing any of the four wanted was answers. In fact, it was more of a craving than a want now. They yearned to know what they were doing in Magia and why they had to be sent to Earth.
Hale sighed. “I know that this is your first day back here, and you are very curious. I promise I will give you all your answers in time, but what Magia needs you for is very significant, it’s A.S.H’s most confidential secret. I don’t think you are ready for it yet.”
“Of course, the most burning question we have is the one that can’t be answered,” Vanessa said ironically.
Olivia asked, “Are you going to teach us how to do magic?”
“Yeah! Are you going to show us how to do those amazing things which you keep talking about?” Vanessa inquired now eager.
Hale smiled. “Yes, I will teach you magic, it will probably be the most momentous thing you ever learn. Most children learn magic when they are about your age, when they are still in school, and they usually get a magical tutor. I will be your tutor and I was going to tell you that lessons will start next week.”
“Next week, I can’t wait that long,” Vanessa wined to the rest of the four who chuckled.
All of the four were very excited about their magic lessons and even David wasn’t patient enough to wait that long. Over the week, the four made themselves helpful around the house and helped Ivy clean up the place. Mr. Hale was very kind to them and treated them like his own children. Over time, the four all became friends and started to become happier and happier living with Mr. Hale.
Finally, it was time for their lesson. Hale took the four to another room in his penthouse. The room was plainly furnished and only had five tables with chairs. On top of each table were three ordinary apples. Everyone sat down.
“This is where our lessons will take place,” he announced. “Today, I am going to teach you how to harness your soul to perform simple magic, but before I do that, I have to explain some rules.”
“Great, I thought magic could do anything, but there are rules? No one lets me have any fun,” Vanessa complained.
“Everything has rules, Vanessa.” Mr. Hale laughed. “Besides, magic can be used to do anything, well almost anything anyways. All you have to do is concentrate. More powerful things require much more attentiveness and energy. However, sometimes when you use too much energy for magic, you can pass out. That is why you have to make sure that you have complete focus so you don’t tire yourself. Magic can be used to create objects out of nothing, but that requires lots of energy. You can’t, however, create objects with magical powers of their own, not permanently at least. You can create enchanted objects temporarily, but that requires lots of focus. Despite this, it’s nearly impossible for magians to create valuable objects such as gold, silver, or jewels which is why they are just as priceless on Magia as they are on Earth. You also can’t change the time or bring anyone back from the dead with magic. Those things are far out of our reach. Finally, magic is better channeled with hand maneuvers, which is why you should always use hand motions when you are performing magic so you don’t pass out.” It was a lot of information for the children to process, but they slowly nodded their head
s. Hale continued speaking, “Today I am going to teach you how to enchant objects. Enchanting is the action of making a normal object magical. Enchanting can be simple or elaborate depending on the size of the object and what you are bewitching it do. What I am going to teach you today is how to make simple enchantments such as invisibility.”
“Invisibility is simple? What next, breathing is hard?” Vanessa sarcastically uttered.
“Believe me, there are much more convoluted things to do with magic,” Mr. Hale answered with a mystifying smile.
Hale pointed at the apples on his table. “These apples are what we are going to be working on. The gesticulation for enchantments is a wave. You have to wave your hand in front of the object you are enchanting while you picture how the object will look once changed. Remember to focus. First, we are going to try invisibility. Try to make your first apple invisible. I know that you might not get it on the first try, but try your best.”
“That’s all we do? We just look at the apple, imagine it’s changing, wave our hand, and it’s going to turn invisible?” Olivia asked, puzzled.
“Magic is very simple. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. As I said, it takes lots of energy to perform magic and barely anyone gets it right the first time,” Mr. Hale responded.
Hale then waved his hand across one apple and it appeared to slowly disappear.
“Wow,” Olivia said, impressed.
“That’s what I want you to do.” Mr. Hale smiled.
The four now tried. Vanessa waved her hand across her apple very fast, but it made no change. David and Eric waved their hands a little slower than Vanessa, but neither of their apples disappeared. The only one of the four with a somewhat successful attempt was Olivia, who waved her hand slowly across her apple. Her apple didn’t completely disappear like Mr. Hale’s, but it wasn’t red anymore either. It was translucent, like glass.
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