The Disillusion Mountains

Chapter 17

The moonlight came out as Nimma finished her story. Grant's face was unreadable. For a while he said nothing and they listened to the quiet night and shivered. When Grant finally did speak Nimma heard uncertainty in his tone.

"So Caspian saved your life, you never saw him again, but there's a good chance he's dead and you discovered magic was real because you were shot down by rebel magicians?" 

"Yes. Alexa explained what was going on. Her brother, Richard, is also a witch and he's leading a splinter group of Draconian Court Magicians to try and take the throne from her. The fact that Richard is behind the war is being kept quiet; neither side can afford for that to come out. Draconia is the only country that still has court magicians. They've been pioneering the art of magical warfare for centuries. They have a formal magic training center and anyone who trains with them is sworn to service of the royal family until they die once they graduate."

"Your hands are shaking now? Is that from the cold?"

"No. Well maybe a bit but mostly no. It'll stop eventually."

"With this magic how much can you do?"

"I can make plants grow from seeds, I can make buds open and grow if they're smaller than they should be. I haven't tried anything large."

"Why don't you call Alexa and ask for a teacher if you want to learn?"

"No. She's busy fighting a magic war and talking to her is just too painful. Plus I don't want to be sworn to serve Draconia for the rest of my life, besides I can't handle planes anymore and I get seasick so. We haven't spoken for six months. I would rather find someone on my own although that's proved easier said than done. Do you want to know what the ironic thing is? That feeling I had when I first met Caspian and later Alexa? That's how magic users identity each other. I'd felt it before but couldn't remember where. It was after my Aunt Rockbell died and I inherited her place I remembered it was around her. I found her magical work space in the basement but no notes on how she did anything. It's full of unlabeled vials, stone bowls, dried plants from the garden, seeds, there's an honest to God cauldron down there too. I had someone the whole time who could've taught me."

"Why didn't she? In fact you dated Caspian for three years he told you he was part of the royal family but not that he was a witch."

Nimma flinched hearing his name.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. When I was in the hospital Alexa was able to explain some things to me before I couldn't take it anymore. Magic users are very selective about who they train. It wasn't always that way. There used to be many more witches in the world in the past because magic was primarily used in medicine and food production. When technology began to overtake the world making life in those areas a bit easier, less and less people discovered the ability to use magic because there was a quicker option available.

"It took about two hundred years or so and the witches began to notice because there were less witches the ones who were around were becoming more powerful. Spells that had always required large groups were being done with only a few witches or even one, feats thought impossible no longer were, like what Caspian did to save me. Alexa said Caspian primarily was a healer in magic though he'd always been trained to fight his heart was never in that. It would seem the amount of energy witches can store increases the fewer witches there are. She says there are probably librarians, hedge fund managers and CEOS who are capable of doing magic but they'll likely never find it. Most people today who discover they can do magic are normally gardeners, farmers, people who are much more in touch with the natural world.

Witches aren't interested in tracking down everyone capable of it only those who discover they can and even then sometimes they choose not to train those people. And it's illegal to tell someone who doesn't already know magic is real unless they're family. I assume he would have told me after–anyway I guess there were a lot of problems with people finding out in the past and this makes life easier. There are magical police who oversee this type of thing apparently and punish people for abusing their powers."

"Do you know how magic works?" Grant asked.

"Magic is fueled by all the rhythms of the natural world. Life, death, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods etc, they create an energy that some can harness. Those people are witches. Imagine a pot of boiling water. The water is the magic and the evaporation is funneled into witches, once it's evaporated more water must be added to the pot or there will be nothing left eventually. We have the ability to use magic because a part of that collection system exists inside us. Witches store that energy in their souls naturally. Anyone who can do magic even if they never realize it has that inside them. Those who do use it call upon the stores of energy inside themselves to make magic. The catch is we can only hold so much at once. Once we use a piece of it that piece is gone. If you do something large or a lot of small things in quick succession you might empty that energy storage entirely and temporarily be unable to use magic. The storage system will be replenished but it's not instantaneous, it takes time and with less witches around that process is faster. The amount of energy a witch can store inside them differs from one to another so there are witches out there more powerful than others."

"If magic is so powerful then why didn't they fix your hands?"

"Alexa offered to have someone try but she was clear there'd be strings attached and I wanted nothing to do with it. Magic is powerful but healing is the trickiest form. Caspian was the best healer in the country, possibly the world, and she said even he might not of been able to repair the type of nerve damage my hands suffered. The damaged nerves would have to be repaired one at a time and the process would be extremely lengthy if anything could be done at all."

"And Selmmie knows? Everything?"

"She does. I broke down and spilled. No one showed up to arrest me though so that's good. I owed her an explanation after the military told her I was dead. Are you still going ahead with me?"

Grant rubbed the back of his neck. "I need to process. I just found out that the world I thought we lived in doesn't exist." He looked down ahead of them at the darkness and fog leading further into the mountains. "What if there are more traps like that one?"

"I don't know. I think I could do what I did again but I can't grantee it would work with a different one."

Grant didn't speak for the rest of the night.

🌺

They waited until the sun was well into the sky. Nimma crossed the boundary into the danger zone and waited. No ghost appeared. The campsite was intact with the exception of the tent. It had been sliced to ribbons and rendered almost unusable. As quickly as possible they collected their things and rushed back to the cliffs.

"I wish we brought more duct tape," Nimma grumbled. They'd spent three hours trying to fix the tent but they didn't have enough of it.

"Well if we fasten a tarp over the top we might be okay."

"You've decided to come with me then?"

"I can't fight that ghost if she pops up and it's the only way out of here I can see unless I want to climb these cliffs which I don't. Plus I don't know how large the ghost's territory is or what's on the other side of these cliffs. I also don't want to leave you alone. I want to know what's really at the end of this map. Regina went to the trouble of setting up this trap there must be something at the end."