Mother of Magic

Magic Review

Stephanie and Le lay in their hotel bed, in the dark, talking.

"... Felt it flowing. The magic or energy or whatever it is. Magic I guess, because what else can do what we were doing? I could feel it like I could feel when I let go of a good pitch. That feeling you get when you just know all the mechanics are right and the ball is headed exactly where you wanted it to go. I could feel the flow but I couldn't make a plank appear without Ava." Stephanie grumped.

Le held an arm directly upward and toward the ceiling. A tiny green flash appeared in the darkness of the room. No streetlights to impinge on the room from the street-facing windows. He now held a toothpick, not visible in the dark to Stephanie.

"Did you just make another toothpick, you showoff?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes. I have way more of these than I need, but it's hard to stop. It's so weird to be able to do this. I think you needed to be on the other end of the ... I guess it was a circuit? You needed that flow on the outbound side of things to be able to get the feel for that. You were sort of like input. A generator or battery kind of thing. I guess your mental images shaped things too. There is more here than just alternating current and direct current. More than amps and voltage. The power had shapes in it. Blueprints kind of. It was shaped for making wood, not something else. Not crescent wrenches were going to happen. It was the wrong kind of power for that somehow. Like a recipe maybe? Sort of? Like if you were making Swedish pancakes or crepes, you use eggs and milk. Not unleavened bread. I think. Not sure that's a good analogy. I never made unleavened bread. Pretty sure that's more like a flour and water thing? Whatever. In any case, that correctly shaped power came from you, through Ava. I think that came from you. I was sort of like output. You were the computer running the program, and I was the printer. I could feel the way the power flowed into me from Ava and was already created and shaped. I focused it and made it coalesce. Gel. Solidify. Phase change. Something like that. Water to ice or gas to liquid except more like energy to matter without all the fancy particle accelerators or big bangs or whatever. After all that today, I can look at the wood walls in the room, think about them, and what they are made of, and create this."

Le twirled his invisible in the dark toothpick.

"OK. Tomorrow I'm on the other end." Stephanie shook her head from side to side on the pillow. "Is this weird?"

"Suddenly having to accept magic as real?" Le asked.

"Exactly. Not only that, but being magical ourselves? Witches? Also? While we are talking about that: Why are you not a Warlock? I thought witches were women and warlocks were men. Same thing I guess?"

"Seems like the word is not gendered here. I am not sure why describing a person doing the same thing requires a gendered term. A blacksmith is a blacksmith. An engineer is an engineer. A programmer is a programmer. Or to be more magic-appropriate, a dungeon master in D&D is a dungeon master. None of those say a thing about their gender." Le observed. A green flash. Another toothpick.

"That makes sense. Warlock is kind of a dumb word anyway. Doing magic has nothing to do with making war. Not directly, though Ava mentions there were witch wars here. Those were between the magic community and the non-magic community. I do not like that word 'InCap'. Kind of sounds like the witches are looking down at the non-magical somehow." Stephanie considered that a moment. "They probably are. It's a very ableist term. We can do it, you can't. Seems like from the talk about the temples and why Ava left, the witches have been able to move things around to be in the power position. No wonder places like Collins are safe harbors. I imagine hearing all the time about being Incapable is tiring, and probably even a bit of a challenge. I kind of like that Ava is trying to support that, even if we got sucked into that for whatever reason. Other than being a kidnapper, she seems like an all-right person. And she did not lie about either magic or our abilities there. At least while we are here."

A green flash.

"How many toothpicks are you going to make?" Stephanie grumped.

"No idea. Still getting used to the idea I can make them. It is a little boggling."

A green flash. "Humm. I think I just made a gold coin. Can't see it all that well. It's the right shape and weight." Le bit it. "Not sure what Gold tastes like, but my teeth bent it."

"You know if you have all that nervous energy, I have other things you could apply that to. Married in this world too you know. Remember? And no Vanessa to distract you from me either."

"Vanessa was and is never a distraction from you." Le said as he rolled over to her.