Somehow it grabbed the darkness and pulled it outside the circle. The darkness billowed and grew, looking for a way in. It got so thick I couldn’t see the room any more.
The circle’s protection had given me a few more moments of reprieve. I had to win this.
I dug deep, deeper than I ever had before and squeezed out the last possible speck of power. I offered it to the coin.
Please. Please wake up. I begged.
But nothing happened.
I just lay there, with the penny shining like the sun in my hands, wondering what went wrong. That was it. I had nothing left to give. I’d failed.
I thought I was in bad shape before I’d started trying to make this charm but that was nothing compared to now. My magic would take years to recover now. I felt totally empty.
There wasn’t any magic left to keep healing my body. That was going to take a long time to recover too. This was the worst-case scenario.
The penny was glowing many orders of magnitude brighter than Sandy’s charm. How could it not be awake? What had I missed?
The girls were still banging on the circle walls but I couldn’t see them. That was probably a good thing as I couldn’t bear to see the pity in their eyes.
Instead and I looked up and saw my brave little granny.
I didn’t have anything left, but maybe she did.
“Help me,” I whispered.
“Oh, love, I can only try.” She did a little twirl and started vacuuming. She pulled the magic out of the air until her little vacuum cleaner was glowing like before. This time, however, she kept going.
She kept pulling in more and more magic until the bag looked like it was going to explode. My little creation wrapped her arms around the bag to give it support and kept going. The vacuum cleaner started to emit a high-pitched whine. The bag was glowing so brightly I could see right through her. I could also see she was starting to come apart. I hadn’t designed her to handle this level of stress.
My brave little cleaner gave me one last brilliant smile, then she dove out of the air. I cracked my hands to give her room to pass. She made it to the penny before the bag exploded. The penny absorbed most of the blast but it still tore her up pretty badly. Her construct was badly frayed and she was starting to fall apart.
Brave until the end, the little granny gave me a final wave, and with the last of her life, she directed all her magic into the coin.
It woke up.
It woke up like a supernova. There was a huge flash of light and a bell like tone expanded in volume until I could feel my bones vibrating.
The whole penny turned liquid and the copper and zinc swirled together. It spun into a ball and floated in the air like a small star.
Sandy didn’t mention anything about this! Making a charm was a truly impressive event.
The light and sound show continued for a few more moments and then began to settle down. The luminescence changed from star level to a pleasant glow. The tone died down, for which I was very grateful. The little orb stopped spinning and settled into an oblong shape, almost like a little metal egg.
That seemed appropriate. An egg for a new beginning.
I could feel my new creation. It was a part of me in a strange and wondrous way.
It seemed happy. Can an amulet have feelings? I didn’t sense anything like that from Sandy’s amulet, but then it was her amulet, not mine. Maybe her amulets had emotions too.
I was happy too, but I was so drained I couldn’t really enjoy the success. I felt cold and hot at the same time. I was shivering with exhaustion. I needed some of my power back but I didn’t know how much I could pull from the amulet.
If I took too much power right after it woke up, I might shut it back down again. That would really suck. I had nothing left for a second attempt.
It felt strong, though. Really strong. It was small but I could feel the power coming from it, like a warm glow.
I opened myself up to it and the warm glow filled me. Power flowed back into my tired body and it felt so good. I’d never really felt my magic before to this degree. I knew what it was like to flow the power and play with it, but I hadn’t known before this how it was the foundation for my life.
Magic was warmth, light, life. It was the color and sparkle in a gray world. Without magic I was a dry, brittle husk. I didn’t ever want to get that low on magic again.
The power I’d pulled from the charm didn’t seem to hurt it at all, so I pulled a bit more. I’m sure I was still low on magic, but compared to the power level I had been at, I felt like I was swimming in energy.
It felt so good! I laughed out loud and realized I was crying a bit. The girls must think I’m a mess. I sat up and looked for them.
The darkness was so black I couldn’t see anything outside the circle at all.
It was just me, the walls, the fog, and my new amulet.
“Annabeth? Sandy?” I called out.
“We’re here!” Sandy said. “Are you ok? What happened?”
“I think I’m ok. It was touch and go for a while there. It took everything I had though.” I thought of my little granny. “Actually, it took more than I had.”
I’d made hundreds of constructs before. I hadn’t missed them as they just seemed to have fun doing what they were designed for. They always waved and cheered or tooted before vanishing. This time, though, the granny had talked to me, had gone way beyond the call of duty to help me, and in the end had given her life for me.
I was humbled and grateful for what she had done. I’d known her for such a short time, but I would miss her.
“You’re sitting up now,” Annabeth chimed in. “Are you feeling better? How are you?”
“Yes, I’m better now,” I said. “It was really rough there for a while. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. The amulet is awake, though, so it was all worth it.”
“I don’t know what that amulet is, but it is way more than just awake,” Sandy said. “Didn’t you hear us banging on the wall?” She sounded kind of peeved.
“Yes, I heard you, but I didn’t want to break my concentration. The amulet wasn’t awake yet and I needed to keep the flow going. What did you mean the amulet is more than awake? It just now woke up. I can feel it too. It seems happy.”
I looked at my little charm fondly. It spun in my hand and let out a happy tone.
“That’s just it,” Sandy said. “Charms don’t have feelings. They have a certain feel and you are connected to them, but they don’t have feelings.”
“I thought you wanted me to keep going until it was awake?” I said bewildered.
“Awake, yes. Aware, no,” Sandy said. “That charm was awake a long time ago. Back when you were first applying pressure, you stopped for while. When you started up again the penny was awake and had turned into a charm. Then you kept going and we were freaking out!”
“Don’t ever do that again,” Annabeth interjected. “You scared me so badly. I’m too old for surprises like that. Next time I’m pounding on the wall you better stop and pay attention. I may be small but I can still box your ears, young man!”
Little Miss Sunshine sounded fierce. It was nice to know she cared.
Thinking back on what Sandy said, the penny must have woken up when I cleaned off the layer of dirty colors. That was when I could put power in it for the first time. I could feel the power I was putting in the coin at that point and I did feel connected to it.
I was used to my little constructs, though, and that didn’t seem awake to me. It just seemed neutral, fresh, ready to begin. No wonder they were freaking out.
“So, if this little thing is more than a charm, what did I make?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Sandy said. “I’ve never made anything like that before. It’s small but the power is so bright. I don’t see as clearly as you do, but even to me it seems like a little piece of a sun. Annabeth, what do you hear?”
“It sounds pure,” Annabeth said. “It has a perfect tone, like you struck a master b
ell in the middle of a concert hall. The notes are round and clear. It’s mainly one note but sometimes there are these quick little trills.”
At that moment the charm emitted a little melody with a pulse of rainbow light. It was like the little egg knew it was the center of attention and wanted to show off a bit.
“Jason, are you sure you’re ok?” Annabeth said. “You’re not looking right at us. It’s like you can’t see me.”
“Actually, I can’t. There was this darkness, like a black smoke, that showed up the night I was… The night that, you know, it happened.”
“You mean the night you had your Waker Moment?” Sandy asked.
“Yes. That’s a nice way to say it. The night I had my Waker Moment. That sounds much better than the night I got beat to death and somehow saved myself by draining the life out of four people. Anyway, the darkness came back. It felt real, like I was back in the hotel room again. The circle sucked it all out, though, and now it’s outside the wall trying to get in. It’s really thick and I can’t see anything past the circle, which includes you two.”
“Oh my,” Sandy said. “That’s a new one to me too. I haven’t heard of anyone experiencing anything like that. Hang on while I scan for magic.”
I heard her charm bracelet jingle and a few moments passed. I spent the time playing with my new charm, or meta charm, or whatever the heck it was. It was so cool. I liked the warmth of the glow and how solid it felt rolling around in my hand.
“I’m not getting any sort of magic reading.” Sandy said. “It must seem weird to you not being about to see outside the circle. Regardless, lets handle this one problem at a time. You have made your charm, however unique it is, and the next step is to see if you can pull power back from it. Let’s try that now.”
I reached out to the metallic egg and pulled a bit more magic. It came to me easily and I immediately felt better. I checked the power of the charm. It was glowing like I hadn’t pulled anything at all. The last thing I wanted to do was pull too much and shut it down.
“I’d already pulled some power and I just pulled a bit more,” I said. “That doesn’t seem to hurt the charm at all.”
“Good,” Sandy said. “At least one thing is going right tonight. Now, have your little person collect some of your energy in the air and see if you can absorb it through the charm.”
I couldn’t use my granny because she was no more. I opened my mouth to tell them, and then stopped. What happened to her seemed personal. I would tell them the whole story, later. Right now, I didn’t want to talk about it.
I didn’t want to make another construct either. It just felt too soon. Maybe there was another way to solve this problem.
I’d been so focused on the charm I’d stopped paying attention the magic fog in the air. When I did, I noticed that the fog near my hand was much less dense. Up by the ceiling the fog was thick and the colors were clear. Near the charm it was almost nonexistent.
I know my brave little collector had been pulling energy out of the air, but this seemed like a bigger change than could be attributed to that. She’d also been vacuuming up in the air, not down by the charm, and yet the fog by the charm was clearest.
I looked around the charm but didn’t see anything. It might be easier to examine any effects the charm was having if it wasn’t on my hand. With that thought, that little egg just floated up in the air.
I wasn’t pushing it with power or making it ride a wave of magic. I just thought about it moving and it did. It was like the charm knew what I wanted and made it happen on its own.
That was seriously awesome.
Now it was up in the air, I looked all around it. I still didn’t notice anything, so I looked in closer. I could now see a very slight movement of the fog toward the egg.
The drift was very slow, though. It was like the fog did a lazy turn toward the charm and fell into it. I zoomed in really close, as close as I was when I found the layer of dirty colors. Now I could see the action happening.
The emerald and sapphire colors got almost all the way to the surface of the charm. Then it was like they were caught by the gravity of the orb and pulled in. The egg was absorbing the power, but at a very slow rate. I would be here for a few days waiting for the egg to do its thing.
I relayed what was happening back to the girls.
“That charm is a wonder,” Annabeth said. “I wish my charms floated around and had power like that.”
“Me too,” Sandy said. “I can’t wait to study it and see what you did. In the meantime, it looks like the main problem is solved. The charm is pulling your power back in and you can pull from the charm. At the end of the day you will have your power back. We just have to figure out how to speed up the process before you have to pee. I still can’t take the circle walls down until you are done.”
I wish she hadn’t said that. Now I really did have to pee. This was going to be a long day. Still, I was very grateful to have a working solution. Getting my magic back felt awesome!
“Can you make the charm flat? Like a dinner plate?” Annabeth spoke up. “It seemed pretty fluid earlier and it’s already changed shape once.”
“Oh, that a good idea!” Sandy said. “With more surface area it should absorb your magic faster.”
Could I do that? Anything seemed possible at this point.
I pushed out the idea to my little orb and got a flash of light and a happy hum in return. It slowly flattened back to its original penny shape and then seemed to turn liquid. It kept flattening until it was a disk as big as a dinner plate.
I focused my sight back to the surface again. It was still absorbing all the excess energy in the air but at a much faster rate. Now I knew the process was still working, I started to rotate the disk in the air. The fog swirled around and gradually became more and more faint.
I noticed Annabeth was always deferring to Sandy but she had some good ideas herself. She just needed the confidence to go along with her thoughts.
I gave the girls an update and then spent the next little while spinning the disk and listening to Sandy and Annabeth chat. As the disk absorbed power, I pulled it back into me again.
It was amazing how I felt with my magic back. My head was clear, I didn’t feel like an emotional basket case anymore, and I just felt happy and energized. Losing my magic was no joke. I’d always had a sense of my power, but now I had a whole new awareness of what it did for me. It was like eating watermelon on a hot summer day. When you’re thirsty and sweaty it takes a normally bland fruit and makes it taste like nectar from the gods. It is so juicy and refreshing and you can feel your body begging for more.
My body tingled a bit from all the power. It loved it. Despite how good it felt, I was only sipping the power from the charm. I’d worked so hard to make it alive, I didn’t want to reverse the process.
As the magic fog cleared, I became more aware of the darkness. I could feel it pressing up against the bounds of the circle. There was nothing neutral in the blackness. It was alive. It knew me. It wanted to finish the job and consume my soul.
Sandy and Annabeth sounded happy, unconcerned. They couldn’t see the darkness like I could.
“So... any progress working on this stuff outside the circle?” I asked. “I’m almost done in here and I’m a scared of what’s coming next.”
“I’ve scanned everything, multiple times,” Sandy said. “And I’m not getting a reading at all. I can sense the House, of course, and the training circle and Annabeth and John. But that’s it. Everything is normal.”
That wasn’t want I wanted to hear. If Sandy couldn’t sense the darkness then she couldn’t give me advice on how to fix it.
“For what it’s worth, I’ve scanned too and I can’t sense anything,” Annabeth said. “I can hear magic, Jason, and I don’t hear any new tones or anything out of the ordinary. I’m sure it is real for you but we aren’t getting anything.”
“Maybe your power reacts differently with the power of the training circle. It could
be the training circle is cutting off your sight somehow. You’ve been in sight mode for a long time now. Try turning it off and let us know if it is any different.”
“Hang on,” I said. “I’m almost done collecting my energy. I’ll switch it off then.”
The blue and green fog was no longer thick and powerful. Now it was just a few wisps floating around. After it absorbed the last of the energy, the charm gave a little happy note and floated back to my hand. As it moved it changed from a big disk back to its little egg shape again. It sparkled and spun and then dropped into my palm.
Now that was over, it hit me how tired I was. I was exhausted. This was my first real time out of bed and, instead of taking it easy, I’d almost died doing magic again. I needed to stop doing that.
I wanted to get this whole thing over with and go to bed.
The little charm was still in my hand and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I needed a charm bracelet like Sandy had. I went to put it in my pocket for the time being and the little object had other ideas. It transformed into a thin band and wrapped itself around my index finger.
I was surprised but happy. I wasn’t going to lose a ring or accidently put it through the wash. If I was a charm, I wouldn’t want to sit in a dark pocket either.
Magic collection was done. It was time to stop stalling and deal with the darkness. Before, it had churned like black smoke from an oil fire and I’d felt this aura of menace. That was also when I’d been out of my mind trying to wake up a charm and losing my magic.
Now the darkness just seemed flat and opaque. It was like someone had coated the walls of the training circle with black paint. It was weird but it wasn’t feeling menacing or anything. Maybe Annabeth was right and this was just something with the training circle.
With a deep breath, I turned off my sight, and the room snapped into view.
“Oh wow! I can see you,” I said. I didn’t realize how much I missed them. I’d felt lonely and cut off in the circle.
John was still sitting over by the kitchen counter being quiet as usual. Sandy looked lean and bad ass even in her kitchen apron. Annabeth flashed me a rosy cheeked smile and turned up the happy wattage as I looked her in the eyes and she realized I could see her.
Misfit Mage Page 8
