Mother of Magic

The Calm Before the Storm

Ava, Stephanie, and Le stood next to the door of the basement walkout of the couple's new mountain home. Le was explaining the finished — to the degree any lived-in home is ever finished — house to Ava. The design, being imported from a completely different Earth, was not like anything Ava had seen in this world.

According to Ava, the Temples, Churches, Mosques ... all the various names the Witches used to describe their buildings ... tended toward the grandiose. Magic allowed for all sorts of eccentric and exaggerated designs. In many cases unnecessary material choices too. The use of Gold was common, even when it made no sense to use it from a wear standpoint. The First Church of The Mothers Light of Seattle called their facility a Temple. The design of the campus was strongly influenced by Russian influences. That was fairly common in the Pacific Northwest given the proximity to Russia. Other edifices Witches built in other cities and by other names were all over the design map. The common theme: tall. Impractical. Overly ornate. Impossible or near it to design and build without magic. Ignore common sense. Instead of being wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, Witches liked to do it the other way around. With magic, Witches could anchor into the ground as deeply as they needed to in order to make spindly-looking designs that could survive and work in the elements of the world.

Ridiculous and intimidating. Like nothing a non-magical would ever build. That was the point. To show the non-magical Witchly power. The gathering places of the Witches were meant to visually intimidate.

What had not occurred on this Earth were designs more akin to Frank Loyd Wright.

Stephanie and Le's place was not a Wright design by any means. For one thing, the roof did not leak. Wright's architectural influence could be seen, even if it was updated to be far more practical. Stephanie described their home as Fallingwater meets log cabin.

The home Stephanie and Le built to learn magic is based on one that had otherworldly design considerations. For one thing that other worlds home had solar panels on the roof. Not only was the roof waterproof but slanted to maximize the amount of time the roof faced the sun. There are no Solar cells on this Earth so there was no practical point to that orientation and design. This house made Stephanie and Le feel a little less homesick. Standing outside and looking at it, it appeared more or less to be the same house.

It was not a slavish reproduction of their other home. Magic allowed them to do some things they did not do at home. This was reflected in the massive mountain-view window in the living room. Their original home had two-story windows in the same wall of the house, but they were nothing like the huge single pane triple layer one Magic could create. In their world, the limit was the machinery the rolled out sheets of glass. Here the limit was their imagination.

Other things were almost exactly the same.

"We call this style of basement door a walkout. You open the sliding glass door and walk out directly into the side yard."

"Makes sense. I suppose I never really thought about naming doors like that. By function. Front door. Main door. Back door. Side door. Now that I think on it I guess doors have always had names like that." Ava nodded.

"There is a set of ski resorts in our world not too far that way." Stephanie pointed South and West. "West of Denver, up in the mountains. Winter Park. Breckinridge. Keystone. Some of those places have ski-out condominiums directly on the slope. Same idea. Step out, and ski down to the lift to go to the top of the mountain. When you are done, ski back to your Condo. Our backyard — here and on our Earth — is not big enough to ski down before you hit downslope trees and some gnarly ground. Too far downslope and you are going to be in mid-air because of sheer cliffs."

"Those places you mention are here too. Ski lifts and all." Ava assured Stephanie.

Le brought them back to their house. "The sideyard you 'walk out' onto is the main yard. All the outdoor activities are here. A place for a little garden. Gazebo. Barbeque Pit next to that. Hammock over there. Lawn chairs to sit on and look out at the other mountains. That stone retention wall keeps you from having things rolling off and away too far. Helps if Stephanie and I are playing catch out here and the ball gets away from one of us. The stone matches the house stone. All local rock."