The Channeler

by William Kline

  Clutching the spell binder to his chest, Tommy smiled gratefully. “Thank you! Thank you so much,” Tommy said, touched “I’ve been scared to walk alone ever since… well, you know.”

  Micah smiled, and laid a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “You are welcome. Just be very careful with it, okay? Spell binders are difficult to make, and this one was particularly hard. Oh, and one more thing – don’t show it off to anyone, alright? Keep it a secret between you and I, please. Otherwise, someone might take it away from you.”

  Tommy nodded and looked around, suddenly conscious of who might be watching. He stuffed the spell binder down into his pocket, and turned to thank Micah again, but the older man had already turned and started walking away.

  “Huh.” Tommy said to himself. He continued to watch Micah until the older man reached the doors to the school. Opening the door, Micah turned, and Tommy thought the that older man pointed at him briefly before turning back and entering the school.

  Tommy shook his head in confusion and resumed plowing the field. It was getting dark, and he wanted to finish the job before he went in to wash up for dinner. And he certainly needed to wash – he was covered in little bits of dirt and rocks from all the little explosions he conjured. This time, though, Tommy plowed the fields the right way, the way Micah had shown him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Tommy’s skill continued to improve, and so did the tasks expected of him. One day, their history teacher had made them research a topic in the school’s massive library, and then prepare a speech on the topic. Micah had made them all deliver the speech in front of the magic class, while spinning three multi-colored balls in the air. The spells that the class learned got increasingly complex, and Tommy felt his abilities growing in time with the new challenges.

  One spell Micah taught them was so complex, and required so much magical energy to fuel it, that Tommy was the only student in his class that was able to make it work. Using the spell, Tommy was able to take an ordinary stone, melt it, and spin the molten rock into complex shapes before cooling it down. Tommy really liked that particular spell, and after working with it for awhile, he was able to figure out how to strengthen the stone at the same time, enabling him to make shapes that were improbably thin. Tommy used it to make bracelets for Mae and Mary, and made a matching pair of rings for his mother and father out of a beautiful striated crystal stone he’d found while plowing fields out in the courtyard - he intended the rings as a Christmas gift for his parents. Micah had praised them when he saw them, and stated that perhaps someday Tommy could help earn money for the school by producing and selling the jewelry, if he decided to stay on after he graduated; Tommy beamed at the compliment and said he was absolutely interested. Micah had even asked Tommy to craft a couple of the rings for him, a request that Tommy was happy to fulfill. It was a new feeling for Tommy. He’d never thought of himself as being able to make something, to create something that someone else might want for money, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he could see a future ahead of him.

  Eventually, the Christmas season came, and almost all the students had family come to visit. The school closed all classes for the entire week, and opened up a rarely-used wing of the school to host all the family members that had come to visit, so that they might have a place to stay. Tommy’s parents were among the visitors, and had been given a pleasant if somewhat smallish room that was, admittedly, quite a long walk from Tommy’s room. Still, with the school’s population swelled to over triple size, everyone made do with what they could.

  For Tommy, the time with his parents was a joy. He’d never been overly close with his family when he lived with them, but having been apart from them and assuming that he’d lost them forever had given both Tommy and his parents a new found respect for each other. Further, Tommy noticed that they’d begun to treat him as less of a child. They chatted about any number of topics, and Tommy’s father had asked for Tommy’s opinion of things, something he had never done previously, and Tommy’s mother commented that he was growing up so fast so many times that Tommy almost got sick of hearing it. After some reflection, Tommy realized that his parents were right. He was starting to grow up a bit. The school taught students to be responsible for themselves, and gave them the freedom to manage their own time and responsibilities. By letting Tommy know what was required for his continued progress and leaving it to him to figure out how and when to accomplish those goals, the school had effectively given Tommy ownership of his destiny, and he had responded by stepping up to the demands placed upon him.

  For Christmas, Tommy presented his parents with the rings he’d made. They both marveled at the beauty of the rings, and were extremely impressed when Tommy told them that he’d made them himself, from a spell that he had figured out. His parents tried the rings on immediately, and were slightly embarrassed when neither one fit – his mother’s ring was too large, and his father’s ring was way too small – but they were further impressed when Tommy used magic to immediately correct the sizes. Tommy also gave Mary and Mae their bracelets. Mary seemed genuinely touched, and clutched her bracelet to her chest for a moment before putting it on. Mae, on the other hand, seemed puzzled by the gift, and spent the next hour forcing Tommy to show her the spells he’d used to make it. Mae couldn’t quite make the spell work, but that didn’t stop her determination to become able, and although Tommy relished the time with her, he began to wish that they would talk about something else.

  At one point during the week, while his parents were taking a nap and Tommy was at dinner trying to shovel bites of food into his mouth in between demonstrating his spell to Mae over and over again, his friend Stephen came into the dining hall and presented Mae with his own Christmas present – a large, beautifully worked book of fairy tales that was full of hand-drawn illustrations. Mae had bounced in her seat and clapped her hands with joy before jumping up, throwing her arms around Stephen, and giving him a kiss full on the mouth. Tommy’s heart fell into his shoes at the sight of that, and he would have fled the room had Mae not immediately bounded out to show the book to her own family. Stephen and Tommy both watched her leave the room, the former boy smiling and the latter frowning, before Stephen turned back and took the seat at the table that Mae had been occupying.

  Stephen turned to say something to Tommy, but, seeing the look on his face, stopped for a moment in surprise and said, “Tommy, what’s wrong?”

  Tommy could only scowl. “I think you know.”

  Stephen looked around. The dining hall was lightly occupied at this time of day, and there was no one else nearby. Stephen shook his head. “I don’t know, Tommy. Honest truth, I don’t.”

  “You know. You and Mae.”

  Understanding slowly dawned across Stephen’s face, and with it came mirth bubbling up and bursting forth as overwhelming laughter.

  “It’s not funny, man.” Tommy scowled, feeling mocked, but Stephen could only laugh harder and shake his head back and forth. Tommy started to stand up to leave, scowling even darker, but Stephen laid a hand on Tommy’s arm and half-pushed him back down into his seat.

  “No, Tommy. No. I’m sorry for laughing, but you’ve got it all wrong,” Stephen managed to choke out between laughs, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes. “You have to understand, Mae is like a sister to me. It’s not like that with us. I don’t like her in that way.”

  Tommy was only slightly mollified. “She seems to like you in that way.”

  That sent Stephen into another round of chuckles, but he was shaking his head again, as well. “No, Tommy, I promise you, I swear to you, it’s nothing like that.” Stephen turned toward him, swinging one leg over so that he was sitting on the bench with one leg on either side, facing Tommy directly. “You see, Tommy, I don’t like girls in that way. My preferences lie in another direction.” Stephen paused for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing in a rush. “I’m gay, Tommy.”

  Tommy was so surprised that he almost couldn’t process
what he was hearing. “Gay…?” was all he could say.

  Stephen nodded emphatically. “Yes. I like guys, Tommy. In fact, I have to tell you, I’m a little bit disappointed to find out that you are so interested in Mae. I had kind of hoped that you and I might be able to have a date sometime,” he finished with a chuckle.

  For Tommy, the hits just kept coming, and his head spun. “What? But… I mean, how could you be gay? You went out with that girl in school. You two were always together. What was her name? I can’t remember.”

  “Phan Ho. That was her name. We hung out together all the time, and we told everyone that we were girlfriend and boyfriend, but it was… ahhh… a relationship of convenience, you might say? You see, Phan only liked women. Since she was Vietnamese as well, and both our families were very traditional and would have been completely not accepting of either of us, we came up with the deception. The families approved, and we were both free to be secretly gay while avoiding the censure of our families and the teasing of our classmates.”

  “But… why keep it a secret, I mean?”

  “You remember how high school was, Tommy. The teasing? The bullying? I got enough teasing for being Asian, the other kids always calling me slant-eye and the like. Could you imagine if I’d come out publicly as gay? I’d have been the slant-eyed pole smoker.” Stephen shook his head. “I wasn’t up for that amount of teasing, and I certainly didn’t want my parents finding out. With Phan, no girls ever asked me out, no one really bothered me, and kept my secrets hidden and contented myself to look for love online. But here, Tommy! In the school, no one judges me. I mean, some kids do, a little, but most of them don’t even care. It’s not that they ‘support’ me, or grudgingly accept me. They quite genuinely don’t care one little bit. It’s a non-issue for them. They treat me no different from anyone else. It’s everything I could ask for, Tommy. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel abnormal, like I’m some kind of freak. I can be myself, and I feel… complete.”

  Tommy was still struggling to wrap his head around the concept. “But… why me? I mean, I’m not... you know. Gay. I’m not gay, Stephen.”

  Stephen grinned. “Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it,” then, at the look on Tommy’s face, “Oh, relax, I’m just teasing you. I’m not going to hit on you or try to kiss you, Tommy. You can’t blame a guy for hoping, though, right?”

  Tommy found himself grinning in spite of himself. Stephen seemed just so… happy. Full. Real, like a whole person. It was hard for Tommy to find any fault with something that could make his friend seem so complete. He stuck his hand out toward Stephen, and the two boys shook hands. “I’m really glad to see you happy, Stephen.”

  “Thanks, Tommy. You’re a good friend.” Stephen frowned for a moment. “As for Mae… You’ve got your hands full, there. I’ll warn you, Tommy. I don’t think Mae knows you like her. Heck, I don’t think Mae would notice if anyone liked her. She’s… interesting.” He paused for a moment in thought. “Tommy, Mae is so interested in magic, in learning as much as she can, that I don’t think she even spares a thought for dating.”

  Tommy nodded. “Yeah, I’m starting to find that out. She’s been pestering me to teach her a spell, and she can’t quite make it work no matter how many times I show it to her.”

  Stephen whistled through his teeth. “That’s a doozy. I can’t think she’s very happy with that. Still, if you want to work your way into her heart, I can think of no better way than teaching her new spells. The more complex, the better.”

  Tommy considered that, and decided that he should rethink his annoyance at trying to teach Mae the spell. If magic was her interest, then Tommy would just have to see what else he could do to capture that interest. He briefly considered showing her the spell binder, and then decided against it. He couldn’t really explain what it was or how it worked, so it would only create more questions than he had answers, and Micah had told him to hold it in the utmost secrecy. Instead, he asked Stephen, “So, is there anyone else that interests you?”

  Stephen smiled and chuckled mischievously. “I dunno. What do you think about your friend James?”

  This time, it was Tommy’s turn to laugh until he couldn’t breathe.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Tommy had both hoped and planned for the week after Christmas to be a slow week. Most of the school’s instructors were still away from the school for the holidays, or had cancelled classes for a period of rest, or both. Tommy’s parents had given him, as a Christmas gift, a stack of novels that he was desperate to break into and start reading. The stories were set in a fantasy land, and appeared to be about a pair of women who obtained magical powers and set out to right the wrongs in the world – precisely the kind of book Tommy loved, even though fantasy novels had fallen out of favor with the masses around the time that magic had become a reality. Moreover, each of the books had been signed personally by the author – quite a feat, since they had been published over twenty years ago.

  Micah, however, had other plans for the class, and summoned all the students to their classroom just after breakfast that Monday morning. On each student’s desk was a series of large, laminated sheets of paper, loosely bound together by a piece of twine looped through a hole in one corner. Each page was covered by a series of long, curving lines, small, different colored triangles that pointed in different directions, and other shapes, letters, and markings that made even less sense to Tommy. He flipped through the pages briefly. Each one contained more drawings, and they got increasingly complex, with more symbols and more kinds of symbols on each successive page. Tommy stared at them in confusion, unable to make heads or tails of any of it. He was still trying to puzzle it out when Micah, as he always did, clapped his hands together to signal that the class was now in session. Tommy turned his attention to the man.

  “Can anyone here read music or play an instrument?” Micah asked. A couple students in the room raised their hands, and Micah nodded. “Not very many. Just as well. What you see before you, on your desks, is the mage’s equivalent of sheet music. It may look like nothing to you now, but once you learn how to read it properly, you will be able to cast the spells written on the paper.”

  Tommy was shocked. It had never occurred to him that it might be possible to write down magic. Evidently, he wasn’t alone; he could see the other students in the class looking at the laminated papers, and then back in forth to one another, in surprise.

  Micah was continuing, though. “We waited until now to teach you this because you couldn’t have understood it before. Think about it. if someone tried to teach you how to cast a spell before you had actually done it, you wouldn’t have had any idea what they were talking about. Almost like teaching a fish to fly, as it were. And you will find that there’s a wide difference between being able to read the texts and being able to cast the spell, just like there’s a difference between being able to read and understand music, and being able to play a particular instrument. To carry that analogy just a little bit further, just like music, it’s going to take a lot of study, work, and practice. We’re going to take advantage of this week to buckle down and do some serious studying.”

  There were a couple groans around the class; Tommy wasn’t the only student who had been looking forward to a little more time to rest and relax. Micah only grinned, though. “Think of it as stealing a march on the other classes. We’re going to cover in a week what the other classes cover in a month. All while they are off goofing around.”

  The instructor’s grin was infectious, and Tommy saw several of his classmates grinning along conspiratorially.

  “Alright, let’s get to it. Pick up the first sheet. You’ll notice the colored triangular marks. The color symbolizes the type of magic to be used. Red for fire, blue for air, green for water, and brown for earth. Now, the direction that the triangle is pointing shows you….” Tommy wished he’d brought a piece of paper to take notes. Everything on the paper had meaning, even the thickness and direction of the lines. H
owever, as Micah talked, Tommy began to see how the instructions on the document could be translated into a spell. After a couple hours of instruction, Tommy could even begin to see what the spell on the paper was supposed to do; in this case, it appeared to be a spell to create a small flame, like that of a candle. It turned out, however, that Tommy didn’t need notes. Micah walked them through it again and again, often showing them with magic what the symbols on the page stood for.

  The class spent the week studying increasingly complex charts. With every new chart, Micah added new symbols, and then showed the class how to translate the symbol into magical practice. The spells grew in complexity, and soon the class was learning spells that took several sheets of paper.

  Halfway through the week, it occurred to Tommy that he should write down his stone-working spell, so that Mae could stop pestering him to demonstrate it. However, when he tried, he realized he didn’t quite know all the symbols required to translate it to a drawing, so one day after class, he approached Micah with the problem.

  What he didn’t expect was for Micah to chuckle at his conundrum. However, after seeing the scowling look on Tommy’s face, Micah was quick to explain his amusement.

  “You can’t write the spell down because the symbols required to do it don’t exist.”

  Tommy frowned deeper. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

  “Tommy, the symbols I’m teaching the class are only the most basic. The most commonly agreed upon methods, if you will. The more advanced spells require symbols that don’t exist. They require you to manipulate magic in ways that other people don’t normally do. So each mage comes up with his own set of symbols to define those odd twists and such that the spells required.” Micah sighed. “And, unfortunately, the only way to decipher the script is to either ask the mage who wrote it to demonstrate, or to try to figure out what they meant through trial and error. That’s why your friend Mae can’t seem to make your little stone bending trick work.”