Inhibition

Chapter 17

Later that night, Cat had one of her lessons with Mrs. Ackley. Since her midterm results had come out with her on top, Mrs. Ackley had begun teaching her how to be a medic. They spent their classes healing animals they found on their random walks and then learning some new random technique.

Cat had also started learning about herbs on the side. Apparently, more people died from poisons and potions than actual battle damage from magic. Then again, there weren’t that many magical battles to begin with. There were very strict rules against using magic like that. It wasn’t for the non-magic people; they knew magic was real, so there was no point hiding they did magic. Besides, most Magus got a thrill out of creeping out the non-magic people by using magic in their vicinity. Yeah, it’s a working relationship.

The Council, made up of the heads of the seven main magic families, decided that magic was better left out of wars. The Magus were not to interfere with any non-magic wars, and their own wars were fought more with politics and subterfuge than actual battles. If it did amount to a battle, it was very small, very quiet battle that was finished in the first few strikes. The Council and even other Magus didn’t want the world damaged, or even destroyed by all the magic. Just like with technology, too much magic in an area ended up messing with the ecosystem.

Trees would grow exponentially. Vines came to life and attacked people. Even animals were affected. Endangered species thrived, and so did the common ones. Now, this might sound like a good thing to any nature lover, but it wasn’t. Even too much of a good thing can be bad.

The trees grew so much that they had to find new nutrients and water in the soil. They drained lakes and killed all the surrounding plant life. The attacking vines were self-explanatory. The endangered species increase messed with the food chain, too much prey killing the plants, or too many predators killing the limited prey.

When Cat had been living as a non-magic person, she’d seen how people looked at magic users. Everything bad that happened in the world was blamed on them. It wasn’t fair, but it was justified. The non-magic people had no defenses. If a magic user decided that they didn’t like them, then they would be gone with a Poof! No one would be any wiser. People may look for the poor person, but it could never be traced back to the killer. A Magus could ruin an entire family, and if you weren’t magic, you couldn’t do anything. They could only trust that the magical Council would keep them in line, and that was a thin hope at best.

Now, as Cat took her usual walk with Mrs. Ackley, stopping and healing animals as she went, she wondered why people didn’t see the good in the Magus. Sure, they viewed non-magic users as little more than talking insects. But was that really so bad? Most people don’t go out of their way to squash an insignificant insect.

Besides, Magus took care of the planet. They helped injured animals (though not too much because that would be getting rid of natural selection and could eventually hurt the environment) and they helped plants grow. The world’s food production had increased tenfold with the Magus talking to the plants and making sure that they had what they needed to grow as big and as nutritious as possible.

As Cat picked up a beautiful fox with a splinter in its paw, she wondered why the public couldn’t see magic like this. Magic that helped and healed. Because of her magic, right at this instant, a cute little fox would be able to walk without suffering. Why couldn’t people just see the lighter side? Why did they have to be afraid?

Sadly, Cat knew she would never get an answer. As open minded as she was, Cat just couldn’t see the side of someone who was prejudiced. Rivalries made no sense to her. She would never be able to understand the people who hated her, because she didn’t understand hate. Sure, she understood dislike, and annoyance, traits given to many people at the Academy. But not hate.

But then she thought of Zynth, the school’s old Headmaster who had murdered her best friend Sari. And who Cat had murdered in turn with her powers. Thinking back on him, on how he had tricked her, kidnaped Sari to sacrifice, tied Cat up to watch, and then killed Sari right in front of Cat’s eyes when he realized that he wasn’t getting out of there alive, she would be surprised if she didn’t hate him.

Cat wasn’t surprised. She found seething hatred deep down where she hadn’t had anything previously. It didn’t matter that Zynth was dead. It only mattered that some of his cohorts were still out there. It wasn’t about them being alive, despite her killing Zynth, and him deserving it, Cat wasn’t ready to be judge, jury and executioner to people. That wasn’t for her.

No, she would settle for hunting them down one day and handing them over to the Council to deal with. Though she hadn’t actually met the Council, or been touched by any of their rulings, the way people feared crossing the Council reassured her that justice would be fulfilled, and not in a pleasant way.