Mother of Magic

The Tower

Stephanie had hoped that statement was not going to be pure bravado. That the feeling she had about the Namber was a real thing. That was a funny thing about magic for her: How often she had to rely upon feelings. Intuition she did not even understand the source of. Baseball had always been that way for her. How to hit and how to throw always came more easily to her than it did for others. In PhysEd, during baseball season she had always excelled in class. Less so in the swimming pool, basketball court, or other sports. Baseball had been her 'born-to' occupation. Her natural aptitude. The way her skills lined up with the game.

The situation with the woman and the cuffs worked out as Stephanie felt it might. The cascade of yellow stones to the tabletop left her with a warm feeling of confidence when the Namber obeyed Stephanie's wishes, defied Reverend Mother Parmers's expectations and intentions, and peeled themselves obediently away from the manacles. Whatever had attached the assortment of magic nullifying stones to the metal was no match for the Namber's need to break free.

Magic nullifying stones that for some reason did not nullify Stephanie's will regarding them. Stephanie mentally flashed on the vest the Mother had made for Ava to come to her Earth and survive magically there for a short period. A mastery of the magical-storing substance lodestone. Stones that Ava was having so much difficulty replicating into the vest to recreate the inter-universe capability it contained. Had contained. Was no longer able to enable. Damaged by its usage as a way to go to defy another universe's natural laws.

Namber and Stephanie were like that she thought. She, and probably Le, somehow brought here from their own world the ability to defy this universe's rules in some way. At the very least exceed what the normal magic users were able to do.

Stephanie could not fly — at least not yet — but she could control Namber. Something Ava could not do. The mystery of Silena's armor was somewhat solved. How Stephanie did it? Unknown. That she could control and affect Namber? Unquestionable.

The Reverend Mother Yvonne Parmar was stunned into temporary immobility and looked down at the pile of Namber on the table with a wide-eyed lack of comprehension. Stephanie growing another head would have been easier to understand in this world where Were's existed.

With the Reverend Mother temporarily mentally frozen, Stephanie had a few moments before Parmar reacted and did something to stop her, like call guards. Stephanie looked at the lock mechanism of the manacles. Without the coating of stones, the mechanism was easy to see and understand. Simple enough. Stephanie used magic to rotate the inner mechanism. No fine control required. The lock mechanism was stout and designed to be opened with a large key. It traded complexity of mechanism for size. Hard to pick because it was had a strong spring applying resistance to turning. The cuffs assumed magic could not be used against them. Stephanie did not need fine control here. Her lack of magical subtly worked to her advantage. In the same way Stephanie could toss Silena into a post she could use force. This time on purpose.

The cuffs clicked loudly and fell off Stephanie's wrists, joining the stones on the table with a clank of metal and chains on the tabletop. Namber scattered about.

The sounds gave the woman a start, and she knocked her chair over standing up and backing away. "Guards!" She screamed in choked panic. Her planned interview suddenly turned on its head in short order and nothing like the one with Ava. Ava could not do things like that. No one, in the experienced Witch's worldview, should be able to.

Stephanie picked up the largest chunk of Namber and magically propelled it into the woman's forehead, where it stuck.

No more screams for guards were issued, choked off by pure panic. Parmar's hands went to her face and tried to pull off the nullifying stone. Stephanie held it there by force of her extra-worldly magical ability.