Aspect Of Winter

by Tom Early

  The next time I woke up, it was of my own volition, and I felt at least a thousand times better for it. Checking my alarm told me it was about six, meaning that my parents would be home again soon. I got out of bed, threw on a pair of sweatpants and a slightly ratty t-shirt, and made my way with my laptop back downstairs.

  Once I had situated myself at the counter, I did my usual email and social media check. All signs point to normal. Except my rarely-used Facebook account did have a new message icon up. I clicked it open.

  It was from Tyler, asking if I wanted to go see the new Spider-man movie with him on the weekend. My brain self-destructed.

  Was this like a bro-hangout thing? Straight people did that; it was a thing. Or… was he actually asking me out on a date? I groaned and clutched my head. Speaking to creatures that shouldn’t exist was one thing, but trying to figure out the mind of your crush was another thing altogether.

  Shit. I still had to reply, too. I typed out a cautious “I think so. What time were you planning for?”

  Apparently he was online, because the reply was instantaneous.

  “I was thinking maybe Saturday night? We could get pizza or something before the movie.”

  I hesitated for a few seconds. I have no idea how long it takes people to reply in these conversations, but I was pretty sure an immediate response showed desperation or something.

  “Sounds great! I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Winky face? What the hell did a winky face mean?

  This. This was how I die. Death by spending too much time trying to interpret an emoticon. What a way to go. Another message popped up.

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Aaaand that was a smiley face. Was this flirting? I didn’t know how to flirt. My head hurt… I just sent back a smiley of my own and left Facebook, cursing technology and my own inability to communicate at all.

  I had to tell Sam. She’d know what to do. Probably at the price of a hell of a lot of mockery, but I was in way over my head.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I woke up the next morning for school feeling much more put-together. Panicky, but mostly put-together. I showered, threw on one of my customary dark green hoodies and a pair of jeans, and made my way downstairs to eat and wait for Sam to show up. My mom was already gone, but my dad made me some toast to crunch on quickly. The wait passed in groggy silence, and I made my way outside when I heard the familiar noise of Sam’s Jeep.

  The air outside had a comforting bite to it, and I breathed deep with satisfaction. I always felt better when it’s cold out, which I guess makes sense. I climbed into the side, and Sam immediately turned towards me and grinned evilly.

  I blanched. “What did you do, and do I need to run?”

  “Nothing bad,” she said, still grinning. “But I imagine you’ve heard from Tyler recently?”

  “Sam, what did you say to him?” I asked, my breath visible as the car cooled from my irritation. “If he runs away screaming from me, I’m going to be really annoyed.”

  “Please, he already saw you take down the Dullahan; I doubt I can top that.”

  “I don’t,” I muttered under my breath. She whacked me on the arm.

  “I didn’t do anything to scare him, relax. I just… hinted that it would be a bad idea for him to string you along for too long without making a move. The hormones were thick in the air.”

  “Sam! Dammit, what if he didn’t like me? What if he wasn’t ready?”

  “Fay, there’s no way he doesn’t like you. Tyler’s had a crush on you for ages, even if you’ve been too blind to notice. There were like five situations where it was painfully obvious that he likes you. And I’m not going to watch you pine just because he’s too much of a coward to make the first move. I assume you’re aware of him and Allison last year? And Julia the summer before? He’s done this before, if with girls and not guys. You haven’t, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not exactly the aggressive first-move-making type. And,” she said softly, laying her hand on my arm, “I know you’d rather not be the one to take the first risk after Logan. Let Tyler shoulder that burden this time.”

  I sighed. “Okay. Just don’t do that again. I actually like Tyler. I don’t want him to be pressured into anything.”

  “Sure, polar bear. I promise to be nice, but I wasn’t kidding about him liking you for a while now. He wants to do this. Now, fill me in on what actually happened.”

  “He, um, stopped by to visit, and asked me if I wanted to go see the new Spider-man movie with him on Saturday.”

  There was no way I was telling Sam that I might not have been, uh, dressed appropriately for the visit. I’d never hear the end of it.

  “Wow, that sounds perfect for you. You really like Spider-man, right?”

  “I guess so. Mostly I just like going to the movies.”

  Sam turned towards me, grinning fondly as she patted the tuft of hair I had constantly sticking up.

  “That’s great. You two are going to have a fun time, I just know it.” Her grin widened. “Oh, and your ass is mine for the rest of Saturday. I’m going to make you look sexy if it kills me.”

  I groaned. Last time she tried that, I was banned from sweatshirts for a month and she hid all of mine. I buried my head in my arms for the rest of the ride. Sam put on really loud music, and I did my best to not consider the possibilities of Saturday for the rest of the ride.

  Tyler met us in the school parking lot. He waved at me really awkwardly, and I waved back after staring for a few seconds. Sam just rolled her eyes and dragged me along with her into school. Tyler walked with us, and neither of us brought up Saturday, but I did fill him on what he’d missed.

  Once we got home after school, Sam went into drill-instructor mode right away.

  “Tyler, go pick up that rock over there and throw it at me. I want to test that new Ward spell out, see if it actually works. Fay, you’re up after me.”

  “What?” Tyler yelped. “I’m not just going to pitch a rock at your or Fay’s face just because you tell me to! I could seriously hurt you!”

  “And I can and will seriously hurt you if you don’t. Come on, it’ll be fine, and just in case it’s not, Prince Polar Bear here is going second.”

  “No,” Tyler said stubbornly. “I’m not going to risk harming either one of you just because you threaten me.”

  Sam went dangerously quiet at that, her face blank. Tyler looked nervous, but stood his ground. I looked at him with something bordering on awe. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had stood up to Sam.

  It felt like nobody dared to breathe for a solid minute, neither side willing to give in. Finally, just when it seemed like the only way it was going to end was with violence, Sam let out a massive sigh and lowered her head, muttering something under her breath too quietly for me to catch it. When she looked up again at Tyler, there was new respect in her eyes.

  “Alright,” she said, smiling just a little. “Just throw a piece of bark or something. I won’t make you do anything worse.”

  Tyler nodded at her just a bit shakily and headed off to the tree line. He picked up a few pieces of bark that we had blasted off some of the trees from last week’s practice with the orbs, and turned back. Sam held out her left arm parallel to her chest, and recited the incantation. There was a slight hum in the air as the air around her arm became slightly distorted. The field of warped air slowly spread outward, arcing in slightly just above her head.

  “Ready?” Tyler called.

  “Go for it!”

  Tyler wound up, and threw one of the more ball-shaped pieces of bark in his hand as hard as he could. When it was about a foot from Sam’s face, the bark just exploded. Pieces of it went flying everywhere except at Sam (and me, since I was standing behind her). Slight ripples spread out from the spot it hit on the Ward.

  “Another! I can take it!”

  “Do you seriously just take the time to figure out the mos
t inappropriate thing to say, and then say it?” I asked resignedly.

  Sam just smirked. I think Tyler rolled his eyes, but he was standing pretty far away, so I’m not really sure.

  Another, larger chunk of bark flew through the air to shatter against the Ward. More ripples spread outward, and then slowly faded away.

  “Guess it works, then. My turn.” Sam stepped out of the way, and I mimicked her pose, taking the journal. I read out the words and nearly choked when my tongue turned the wrong way trying to sound out one of them.

  “I don’t think the spell and I agree with each other,” I said, gagging a little. “But I think I have something that might work pretty similar to that.”

  The idea had popped into my head unasked for when I tried to cast Ward. Somehow I knew the concept was sound, and it almost felt like I had used it before. Which was weird, to say the least.

  “Tyler, can you give me a second and then throw the bark at me anyway?” I asked. “I promise I’ll just duck if I don’t think this’ll work.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you,” Tyler said, face doubtful.

  “I swear I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

  Tyler walked back out to where he was before, and started winding his arm up theatrically. I focused on the air in front of me, on the water it carried. I didn’t remember much of chemistry, but I did spend a fair amount of time on the water cycle because it was pretty important to my ability. Sublimation was when a solid goes to being a gas directly, like with dry ice. The reverse, deposition, was also possible, with a low enough temperature and the right pressure. I decided to act on that theory.

  Concentrating, I compressed the air in front of me as much as I could while lowering its temperature at the same time. It was kind of like wringing out a towel to make sure it’s dry. I tightened the air in front of me, giving it the potential it needed to have for this to work. Finished, I gave Tyler a nod and he threw the bark at me.

  I was vaguely able to sense somehow when the bark entered the field of cold air I had created, and the second it did, I released the compressed air in front of it. In a millisecond, ice crystals formed in midair, thickening incredibly quickly even as the bark hit it. It was like a giant snowflake formed where the bark impacted, and as the bark broke through the first layer, more and more ice formed all around it, until it ended up frozen in the air, still about eleven inches from my face.

  I grinned. I had my own Ward, after all. And this one didn’t make me use either of my hands to manifest it.

  “Show-off,” Sam grumped. I stuck my tongue out at her.

  “Whoa! That’s so cool!” Tyler said. I gave him a thumbs-up, grinning widely.

  “Subtlety truly is a lost art, it would seem,” Sam murmured. I shot her a look, which she ignored.

  The next one up for testing was Blink Stride. Sam went first again. She uttered the short incantation, and vanished, reappearing a short distance away. She stumbled a bit, and then cheered.

  “That was awesome, but really exhausting. My head is pounding now.”

  “How many times do you think you could do it?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe one or two more times, but not too often. Just think of how much this could help in combat, though! If you’ve got a guy with a Ward up in front of him, you can just use this to get behind him and take him out.”

  “Yeah, but not against groups,” I added, “not if it takes that much out of you.”

  “Agreed. You up for some magic sparring in the future, Fay?”

  “As much as I can be for something that involves beating me up repeatedly.”

  Tyler walked back over to us and we ran through the rest of them. I was able to use all of the spells except for Ward.

  Once I had the short incantation for Blink Stride down, I decided to have a little fun. While Sam and Tyler watched, I whispered the words and vanished, reappearing immediately behind Sam. I grinned and poked her in the back, whispering the incantation again as she whirled to face me. I popped up again behind Tyler and attempted to do the same thing, but I ended up tripping from disorientation on the second jump, though, and fell on top of him. If I chose to fall forward and not backwards, well, that’s my business. Laughing, Tyler pushed me off of him and rolled back to his feet. I got up a second later, a silly grin on my face. Sam ignored us both with magnificent disdain, as she rattled off another incantation.

  Fay, are you hearing this?

  Wow. This is really weird, but yeah. You’re coming through loud and clear, I thought back.

  Great. Now, try to remember that you don’t need to screw up your face while we do this. You look constipated, it’s gross.

  Oh. Sorry.

  Try to talk to Tyler while we do this. I’ll run interference, and we’ll see if you can multitask.

  What do I say? I have no idea what to say!

  Oh. My. God. Just ask him anything. It’s a conversation, not rocket science.

  “Tyler, what are you going to do if Sam and I end up going to the University?”

  I mentally hit myself right after I said that. It had been on my mind for a while, but it was a pretty confrontational question to just ask.

  Tyler looked confused for a moment, and then thoughtful.

  “You know, I hadn’t really thought about it. I know that I can’t follow you since I’m not magical, so I imagine I’ll have to go on with my own life. I mean, hopefully you two will keep in touch, but I can accept that this is one of the things in life that I’ll just have to do without.”

  He looked kind of sad while he said it, though, and my heart gave an annoying twinge. I must have looked upset, because he smiled guiltily.

  “Hey now, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

  Dinosaurs! Fluffy things! Sam’s interference had begun.

  Fluffy things? Really?

  “Sorry, Tyler,” I continued determinedly, “it just sucks that that’s how things are. I wish there was a way we-“

  Picture him naked. I bet he has abs.

  “Fay? You okay? You just went really red for a second there.”

  “Uhm, yeah. I’m just a little, er, distracted.”

  “It’s okay, man. I’ll be fine, so don’t worry,” Tyler said as he laid a hand on my shoulder.

  There was an audible “ping” from inside my head as the connection to Sam broke. She gave me a quick grin.

  “Okay, what else is there that’s new in the journal, Fay?” Sam asked.

  I flipped through it quickly. There was another addition, this time up at the front. It was simply titled “Familiars.”

  Familiars are companions to those Arcanes who cast spells. As a rule, familiars are magical creatures whose temperaments either resemble or complement the spellcasting Arcane’s ability. They are able to share in the magic of the Arcane in a mutually beneficial bond, resulting in the potential to share spells with them, and most familiar-Arcane pairs are well-versed in combat. If the Arcane is the close-combat sort, its familiar often is capable of some sort of long-range combat. If the Arcane is more proficient in a certain type of magic, the familiar often mirrors that proficiency. A salamander is a common familiar for fire-focused Arcanes, as sylphs are for air-focused Arcanes. The alchemist Paracelsus discusses the capability of elemental familiars for spell amplification in some of his unpublished works. Whether or not the familiar is an elemental, its nature can influence the Arcane’s casting, if the caster so chooses. There are some exceptions in which familiars are objects, but such cases are exceedingly rare. Not all spellcasting Arcanes have familiars. Elemental casters are the most likely to have them. The amount of time for a familiar bond to form varies per individual, and always requires some form of physical contact.

  “Huh,” Sam mused. “That sounds pretty interesting, actually.”

  “Yeah. I bet I wouldn’t have one, though, considering my apparently standoffish relationship with spells on a good day.”

  “Hey, you never know. I wonder what mine is, though.
We should try some more summoning spells to find out.”

  I nodded. Having something that would help me cast spells and stay alive sounded like a good thing to me.

  My only question was, what sort of familiar would someone like me have?

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Hey Tyler, are you ever lonely in that giant house of yours, since your brothers and sisters are gone?”

  We were sitting my room, playing video games on an off day from magic testing. Sam wasn’t there. November 14th wasn’t a good day for her, and over the years I’d learned to give her space.

  “Yeah,” Tyler sighed, moving around on the beanbag we’d placed in front of the TV. “My parents aren’t around much either. They’re always off at some wine tasting event or big business deal. I don’t know, sometimes it just feels like they’re waiting for me to go off to college too, so they can make their lives totally their own again.”

  “I’m an only child,” I said. “Which you’re already aware of, I guess. So I don’t know what it’s like to have siblings to play with. I’m home alone pretty often too. My parents just have so much to do, but they almost always find a way to check in on me.” I looked at him. “What was it like, having so many siblings at home?”

  Tyler leaned back, a fond smile on his face. “It was… loud. In that really nice way that happens when you have a lot of people who love each other in one place. I’d be walking around the corner of the house, and then-” he ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, ruffling it and making it stand up everywhere, “one of my brothers would just do this to me. They called it a dandelion attack, since my hair would always go crazy afterwards. Or one of my sisters would start chasing me around the house, since I was so much younger than them. Usually Cora,” he said, his green eyes far away and happy. “She was always playing with me.”

  “It must be really quiet now, then,” I said, feeling something warm in my chest at seeing him happily reminiscing. “Do you spend a lot of time with your friends?”

  “Hey now,” Tyler said, grinning and nudging me with his elbow. “I’m sitting here with you, aren’t I? But yeah, I do. Usually through sports, actually. I’m already an active person, but being part of a team has the extra bonus of not being alone. I don’t want to be in charge; I hate it. But I love feeling like I can help others bring out their best, you know? Just by being there. My brothers and sisters always did it for me, and now I want to do it for others.”