Thaumatology 101

by Teasdale, Niall

  ‘You made her happy,’ Ceri commented. ‘Come on, we’ll go up to the lounge. It’s a bit more formal than it sounds, but it is comfy.’ She turned, leading the way up the stairs.

  With Carter in one of the big armchairs, Ceri in the other, and Lily perched on a footstool beside her, the half-demon looked suspiciously like she was playing at being Ceri’s pet. Ceri gave her one quick glance, but there seemed to be no real reason for the submissive posture and Ceri decided she was imagining it.

  ‘I wanted to add my best wishes for your quick recovery, Miss Brent,’ Carter said.

  Twill floated in, followed by a tray with a tea cup and two coffee mugs on it. As the tray arrived near Carter, he took his cup and nodded politely to the fairy.

  ‘Ceri,’ she said, ‘and thank you. I was a little surprised when Lily said you were coming.’

  Carter smiled. ‘Ceri then. In which case, you’ll call me Carter. As for the visit, call it “protecting my investment.”’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  He smiled. He had perfect, white teeth. ‘I got rather irritated with my old Alma Marta’s attitude regarding the hunt for the T-Null boson so I made an endowment to the Metropolitan. That’s what allowed you to be employed. Not that I knew Cheryl would employ you, but it was a happy coincidence.’

  Ceri vaguely recalled that Doctor Tennant’s first name was Cheryl; she preferred to be called by her title. ‘You went to Cambridge?’ she said. ‘My parents’ studied there?’

  Carter took a sip of his tea and let out a soft, contented sigh before nodding again to Twill. The fairy beamed. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘that’s where I met them.’

  ‘I didn’t know you knew Ceri’s folks!’ Lily piped up.

  ‘It was before I met you, dear Lil,’ he replied. ‘Your father, Ceri, shared some of my classes. You know he did some wizardry at Cambridge?’ Ceri nodded. ‘I did Pure and Applied Wizardry, he was my practical partner. His circles were always better than mine.’

  ‘You should see the one downstairs,’ Lily said enthusiastically.

  ‘I’d not even request to,’ Carter said, ‘though I’m sure it’s perfect. Anyway, we… lost touch after university, but when I heard they had gone into freelance enchanting work, I had them do the security enchantments for the Dragon. They did the enchantments on the first seven of my clubs.’

  ‘You came to the funeral,’ Ceri said quietly, looking intently at Carter.

  He nodded, his face falling a little. ‘I did. I’m surprised you remember. You were… rightly distraught.’

  Ceri took a long drink of coffee. The funeral had been hell and she remembered little of it, but all sorts of celebrities and businessmen had come to say goodbye to the Brents. ‘Thank you for coming,’ she said. She took in a deep breath and let it out. ‘Well, from what Doctor Tennant said, your “investment” is safe. I may have got burned, but we got good data.’

  ‘Good news,’ Carter said, straightening his back. ‘You were actually burned, I hear?’

  Ceri raised an arm, unbuttoning the cuff and pulling the sleeve back. ‘Second degree,’ she said, ‘but it’s better than my entire body.’

  ‘Or turning into a chimp,’ Lily added, giggling.

  Carter laughed. ‘One of the professors at Cambridge was caught in a thaumic flare during an experiment while I was there. He turned into a six foot crocodile. They eventually managed to turn him back, but he never got over the urge to lie in the Cam waiting for unsuspecting students to come by on boats.’ Ceri joined the laughing. ‘It was your enchantments that saved you?’ Carter asked.

  ‘Must be. People keep telling me I couldn’t have survived otherwise,’ she said. ‘And considering the hit I took… Yeah, Mum and Dad knew their enchantments.’

  ‘Indeed. You haven’t looked under the bandages since?’

  Ceri shook her head, buttoning her cuff back up. ‘Not allowed to take the bandages off. There’s some…’

  ‘Gunk,’ Lily said. ‘Her forearms are covered in gunk. Witchy gunk. Oh! I hope the colour doesn’t leech into your skin, you’ll look like you’ve been wearing bad copper jewellery.’

  ‘This is what I love about my lovely Lily,’ Carter said, ‘such a grasp of the important things in life.’

  Ceri giggled while Lily sulked. ‘You’re not at all what I expected,’ Ceri said to Carter.

  ‘She loves the gossip columns in the Wednesday Witch,’ Lily said, getting her own back.

  ‘My public image is… my public image,’ Carter replied, ‘and I won’t say it’s entirely fake.’ He smirked. ‘I’m fifty-four and last night I went to bed with two twenty year old porn actresses. It’s not so much a boast as an illustration that I have a rather pleasant life.’

  ‘You don’t look a day over twenty-five,’ Ceri said.

  Carter’s smirk became quite cheeky. ‘Why thank you. However, my public image is not the whole me.’

  ‘Which is what I keep telling her,’ Lily put in. She leaned over, casually resting her forearms on the arm of Ceri’s chair, and then her chin on her arms.

  Carter smiled indulgently at the half-succubus. ‘My greatest defender and my best asset,’ he said.

  ‘Another investment?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘In more ways than one. Lily is a competent waitress and a draw to the club. Her customers buy more drinks, just to have her come to the table. They always go away happy, and she no longer has to do quite such distasteful things for her money.’ He looked down at the box he had brought with him and slid it toward Ceri with a foot. ‘Which reminds me, a “get well soon” present, if you will.’

  Frowning, Ceri picked up the box and opened it. She blinked. ‘It’s a tablet PC,’ she said. ‘Quad core with MagiTech coprocessors… I can’t…’

  ‘As Lily would tell you if she were being honest,’ Carter interrupted, ‘I am not a generous man and I don’t hand out expensive gifts often or to many. How many gifts have I actually given you, Lil?’

  Lily considered the question, still resting on the arm of Ceri’s chair. ‘You usually get me a little something for my birthday,’ she said. ‘Nothing huge.’

  Carter nodded. ‘This will help you with your work, Ceri, and it’s a belated way of saying thanks for helping Lily out of her bad ways. I’m not sure she could have done it without you.’

  Ceri could tell she was not going to get out of accepting the computer. ‘Lily helped me,’ she said. ‘I was just about a recluse after Mum and Dad died.’

  Something flickered across his face; something like recognition. It was gone before Ceri could really be sure it was there, replaced by a smile which did not quite reach his eyes. ‘Lily helps people just by being herself,’ he said. ‘Tell me, is that why you did not go to Cambridge like your parents?’

  Ceri nodded. ‘I don’t like travelling,’ she said. ‘I get panic attacks. And there was the house here to look after…’

  ‘Cambridge’s loss,’ he said, and now the smile did reach his eyes. ‘I should leave you in peace. Don’t get up, I can see myself out. Lily, I’ll see you later. Ceri, it’s been a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.’ He stood and swept out of the room, and Twill, who had been watching silently from the mantelpiece, flew after him, probably to make sure he left. Twill was not really fond of wizards.

  Ceri turned slightly and tapped Lily on the nose. ‘What’s this?’ she said.

  ‘Huh?’ the half-demon said, looking up without raising her head. ‘What’s what?’

  ‘This. You’re behaving like you’re my house pet.’

  Lily frowned and then sat up straight. She looked as though she would have blushed if she could. ‘I… don’t know,’ she said. ‘It kind of felt right… I…’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Twill said, zipping back into the room. Ceri and Lily looked up at her quizzically. The sound of wind chimes filled the room. ‘You’re part demon, silly girl.’

  ‘So?’ Ceri said.

  ‘Well this is the first time you’ve ever put on a show of being Mis
tress of the house, Ceri,’ Twill explained in a rather patronising tone. ‘You spoke the words and the house responded. Lily’s nature makes her subservient to you.’ The little, brown fae whisked across to hover in front of Lily’s nose. ‘You’re lucky you have your human side to keep it in check or you’d be Ceri’s slave. You know what “succubus” means, don’t you?’

  ‘From the Latin succubare,’ Ceri said, ‘which means “to lie under.”’

  Twill nodded. ‘There you go,’ she said.

  Neither Ceri nor Lily looked particularly pleased with the explanation.

  September 5th

  Ceri walked into the laboratory, tensing herself against the sting from her wrists. It did not come and she blinked, faltering in the doorway. There were bandages on her forearms. Well, that explained it, the analgesic in the poultice was supressing the normal pain. But if the accident had happened, why was the lab in full operation, Tennant in her cage and Shane setting the circle?

  She walked over to her console to see the familiar readouts scrolling across it. All the readings suggested that the system was fully synchronised and ready to fire. She looked around at Shane. The minor wizard looked back at her, his features twisted into some sort of demonic expression of malevolence. ‘No escaping this time newt,’ he hissed. ‘You’ll fry for sure this time.’ And then he was back to normal, a sour man waiting to close the circle.

  Ceri looked away. She was dreaming again. That was the only explanation; another widderwise dream, though at least this one was about her own accident.

  ‘Initiating resonance transducers.’ Tennant’s voice sounded oddly distant as she said the familiar words. Ceri wondered when Shane had closed the circle, but then she was dreaming and dreams tended to skip… ‘Initiating pulse generators.’ Yeah, skip bits just like that.

  Ceri turned, not waiting for the feeling she knew would come that something was wrong. This time she saw the beginning of the flare as time slowed to a crawl around her. She watched the first swelling flicker down at floor level, saw it rise upward. Beneath it, the salt of the outer circle glowed slightly red. That was it, the fault which had caused the containment breach. But what could cause the salt to glow red like that?

  Looking up, she saw Doctor Tennant starting to cry out in alarm. Then her gaze met Shane’s. He was watching her. He had been looking in her direction when the eruption had started and he had said nothing. No… He had known! Shane Walters had known it was going to happen. She looked back down at the circle again, seeing a shape glowing through the salt. A rune of some sort?

  She looked up again as the streamer of energy arcing from the circle hit her chest. Her body stiffened, the energy, the sheer power of the thaumic release was incredible. It roared through her, burning her skin and charring her flesh. Pain racked her body, tore through her mind, and became everything she was. All she saw was the brilliant white of the energy pouring from the circle and all she could think was, ‘Please let me black out now.’

  ‘Ceri!’ The voice seemed to come from a long way away and she did not recognise it at first. ‘Ceri, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up, hun.’ The energy clawed at her, enfolding her, tearing at her skin, and she tried to fight back, pushing it away. ‘Stop fighting me, dammit! Ceri!’ The searing energy seemed to soften somehow. It felt warm and comfortable, and soft like…

  Like a pair of soft breasts crushed against hers, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around her chest. She stopped fighting and sagged. ‘That’s it, hun,’ Lily said. ‘You’re safe now. Just a bad dream.’ Ceri’s ragged breathing slowed and she relaxed more against Lily’s chest. ‘You okay now, Ceri?’ Lily said softly.

  She was covered in sweat and her limbs felt slightly numb, but lying there in Lily’s arms felt really kind of good. Her arms curled around Lily’s body and she felt wet skin slide over skin. ‘Um ‘kay,’ she said. Her brain felt fluffy still, half-mired in sleep.

  ‘You have a nightmare, hun?’ Lily said. Her voice was soft in Ceri’s ear. ‘I got home about twenty minutes ago. I’d just finished getting ready for bed when I heard you screaming.’ Ceri’s brain tried to crawl out of the fug of sleep and nightmare-pain, but the sound of Lily’s voice was so soothing. ‘So I ran across from my room and you were lying there straining like, um, well if you hadn’t been screaming I’d have thought I was interrupting.’ Ceri giggled slightly at the inference. Lily’s skin felt so smooth against hers. The half-succubus smelled really nice too. ‘Can you remember what you were dreaming about?’

  Ceri frowned, trying to remember and the concentration began to cut through the mists of sleep. ‘I was in the lab,’ she said, trying to pull the memories of the dream back together. ‘The accident happened all over again, but there was nothing to protect me…’ Lily let out a little, sympathetic gasp and hugged her tighter. Not that Ceri was complaining. ‘It hurt, but…’ Something was intruding on her attempts to remember, but her attempts to remember were confusing her ability to work out what the intrusion was. ‘Um, there was something odd about the circle…’ She realised what the intrusion was; there were two of them and they were pressing into her boobs. ‘Uh, Lil… I’m okay, you can let go now.’

  Lily giggled. ‘You were the one hugging me,’ she said, releasing her arms from around Ceri’s ribs. Ceri lay back onto her pillows and immediately regretted it. ‘We’ll need to change the sheets again,’ Lily said, nodding. ‘C’mon, you can sleep in my bed tonight. You can’t sleep on wet sheets.’ She stood, padding toward the door.

  ‘I’ll, uh, rinse myself off first,’ Ceri said.

  ‘Sure,’ Lily said. ‘I’ll be waiting.’

  The bathroom was a spacious one, set between the two bedrooms, and it had a walk-in shower as well as a bath. Ceri showered quickly in lukewarm water, dried herself off, and then walked out and across to Lily’s room. She stopped in the doorway and looked across the double bed to where Lily was lying propped on an elbow, covered to her waist in a sheet. She patted the bed with a grin, but Ceri hesitated. Lily’s face fell. ‘Don’t you trust me?’ she said.

  ‘It’s not that,’ Ceri replied. In truth, it partially was that she was unsure Lily could keep her hands to herself, but it was mostly because Lily slept in her parents’ room. She had not slept in there since she was ten and afraid of a thunderstorm which had made her wrists tingle. Pushing herself forward with an act of will, Ceri let her towel slip and hung it over the rail at the foot of the bed. Then she climbed in beside Lily.

  The half-succubus grinned. ‘Turn on your side,’ she said. Ceri did as asked and Lily curled up behind her. Ceri could almost feel the child-like smile on her friend’s face. She could certainly feel the firm breasts pressed against her back. At least the “intrusions” were not there. Lily’s arm curled around Ceri’s waist. ‘Now just relax,’ Lily said. ‘I’m tired. I need rest, not sex, okay?’

  Ceri was about to answer when she heard the singing. Lily was singing a soft lullaby, her voice almost a whisper. Ceri did not recognise the language, but the words crept over her like a blanket and, slowly, she began to smile as she drifted off to sleep.

  ~~~

  Birdsong woke her, that and the sunlight streaming in through the window. Lily’s slender arm was still around her waist. She could feel full, firm breasts pressing against her back, hips pressed into her bottom, and thighs resting lightly against her own. Not really sure what time it was, Ceri lay there, feeling warm and comfortable. She would have to move soon, but for now she was content to lie there in her friend’s embrace.

  The dream of the night before was little more than flashes of remembered pain and images now. Ceri lay there, trying to pick out the images from the pain. Luckily, pain was hard to remember. You could remember having been in pain, but the actual pain tended to fade. All she was really left with was the red shape glowing through the salt which formed the outer circle. She felt she had seen it before, but could not remember where, and the image was fading.

  A little reluctantly, Ceri lifted Lily
’s arm and slipped out from under it. Lily stirred, making discontented noises before curling up more and settling back into deep sleep. Ceri looked back at her with a smile on her face. She looked absolutely gorgeous; both incredibly sexy and terribly innocent at the same time. Ceri took a half-step back toward the bed and then shook her head. She slipped quietly out through the door and across the landing to her own room.

  ‘One night in bed with a succubus,’ she muttered, ‘and you’re contemplating being an idiot.’ She found one of the shirts she wore around the house and slipped it on. ‘She didn’t even try anything,’ she added, and headed for the door. ‘And now you’re talking to yourself!’

  ‘First sign of madness,’ Twill said as she buzzed past.

  ‘Yeah, thanks,’ Ceri said wryly.

  ‘Bad dreams again?’ the fairy asked, hovering over the next landing as Ceri walked down. Ceri nodded, reaching the floor and turning toward the lounge. Twill landed on her shoulder, little hands gripping the cloth. ‘I saw the sheets. Well, one good thing came of it.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘I know. You trusted Lily and yourself enough to sleep in the same bed as her. That’s progress.’ She flicked her wings. ‘What’re you up to?’

  Ceri knelt beside the box which still rested beside the seat and started to unpack the contents. ‘There was an image I saw in the dream,’ she said. ‘I want to draw it out before I forget it.’

  ‘And this… device is going to draw it for you?’ Twill was not really at home with technology.

  Ceri giggled. ‘No, but I should be able to use it to draw on.’ She lifted the tablet out and pressed the power button. A green light shone in one corner of the eight by ten inch computer, and the screen flickered once and began to stream boot-up text; apparently, Carter had made sure it was charged and ready for use. The text vanished and a background image appeared. It was an upward-pointing containment circle with “Get Well Soon” printed across it in large, white letters. Ceri grinned; yes, Carter had set the machine up for her. ‘Wow,’ she said, glancing at a corner of the screen, ‘MagiTech Thaumium Six OS. Latest thing. This has the Etherstream networking system, optimised multi-threading, the works.’