Inhibition

Chapter 28

Cat spent most of their training acting like an inanimate object. Mostly she used her protective sphere, sitting inside of it while people tried to physically hurt her. Sometimes she read a book, other times she just sat there and day dreamed.

When she got really bored, she’d decide to play. It was little things, here and there. People throwing things would trip on something that hadn’t been there a minute ago, and then others would find that the objects they were trying to throw, just didn’t end up going to where they were supposed to go. Cat didn’t control where they went, just where they didn’t, so she got to be surprised too.

Her class started looking pretty pathetic to Coach Will. Cat just giggled when she started screaming.

“Come on! You go to the best school! You are the best in this school! You should be the best of the best. And you’re not!”

Cat coughed to hide her giggles.

“The only person doing well here is Aidan Greer!” Cat started to raise her hand. “You don’t count.” She put her had back down.

It was true. Cat had managed to sabotage every person in the class, at least once, except for Aidan. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. Cat tried to break Aidan’s streak of perfection, but it didn’t work out well.

With most people, Cat merely had to send her magic along the threads of theirs. To redirect their aim, she had to slide through their magic, and give a tap along the thread, at just the right time. This “tap” was actually an influx of her magic to their magic thread, creating a bump that traveled through their magic. It was like finding a glitch, a weakness in their thread. With a little magic, Cat could make the thread wobble a bit, throwing off the aim and decreasing the power. With a lot of magic, Cat could make the thread break, sending a wave of magical back lash, very painfully, back into the person.

The strength of her opponents’ magic determined how much magic she needed to use to make it wobble. If it was strong magic, than it was a strong thread, and she needed more magic to overcome the inherent resistance in the magic. Magic was energy, and energy did not like being interrupted, or made to go the opposite direction. The more energy that was going one direction, the more energy Cat had to put in to overcome the resistance to change, and cause her little blip.

When Cat first tried to mess with Aidan, just as a little joke, they were still practicing with the boulders provided. Aidan was very good at sending his magic out, only as much as was necessary, and attaching it the boulder in order to move it. Some of their class attached their magic, spun the boulder around themselves, and then severed the threads all at the same time. The boulder, released, would use the centrifugal force to carry itself forward. This way, the person was safer from someone latching onto their magic and creating a backlash. The boulder also flew with more force.

Aidan didn’t need any of that. He merely threw the boulder at Cat’s head. One minute it was on the ground, the next it was hitting her shield. At first, Cat couldn’t see what he was doing; it was too fast for her. But then she looked closer. Instead of using thick threads of magic to control the entire boulder, Aidan wrapped incredibly thin strands around each individual atom, managing to coordinate each one so it only looked like the boulder stayed intact. In fact, he had forced it to dematerialize with his magic before he even started.

The next time Aidan threw, Cat sent her magic out. Her purple strands thinned out and multiplied as they encircled Aidan’s. She pushed. And was nearly knocked on her ass. It was like hitting steel. Aidan’s magic forced her out with twice the amount of force she had used trying to sneak in. The boulder hit her shield again. When she looked up, Aidan was looking right at her. His face was cold.

Cat gave a shiver. Aidan could be scary when he wanted to be.

As soon as they were dismissed, Aidan walked over to Cat, closed his hand over her upper arm, and hauled her out the room by it. Cat waved bye with her free hand as she went soaring past her friends. They just shrugged it off as yet another oddity.

Aidan dragged her into the room of doors, and then picked door number two, the classroom. He finally let her go. She rubbed her arm as he made sure the door was shut. Then he turned back to her.

Cat tried to smile at him.

“What was that?”

Cat pointed at her still smiling mouth. “Vapid smile?”

Aidan gave her a look, one of many that Cat was sure he used just for her. “I’m not even going to respond to that.”

“You kind of just did.”

Aidan took a deep, calming breath, closing his eyes and trying for patience. “Look, do you even understand the gravity of what you just did?”

“Ok, now I’m really confused.”

Aidan seemed to be struggling. After a few false starts, he finally got the words out. “You don’t use magic against another person. You just don’t. And you did.”

“I don’t understand. First, let’s say you caught me in my dastardly plot, which you didn’t.” She waggled her pointer finger at him. “I totally gave myself up by speaking now. Those people were using magic against me.” She threw her hands out in a what gives motion.

“No, those people were using magic on objects, and then using those objects against you.”

“I don’t see the distinction.”

Aidan muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “You wouldn’t.” Cat pretended she hadn’t hurt anything. “This is more complicated than you know. If anyone else had caught you using your magic against them like that, there would be serious consequences.”

“Well, that’s vague.”

“I’m not kidding, Cat. Using magic against someone is considered almost an act of war. It’s rude, and obnoxious, and . . . and . . . dangerous. It’s something you would only do to your enemies. Your worst enemies.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Have you ever thought about how people with magic war?”

Cat looked startled. Truth was, she hadn’t.

“It doesn’t happen often. And there’s a reason why. We can’t use machines, or anything that non-magic people use. They fry when we get too close. We can’t even use their communication devices. They’ve been teaching us with these classes how to use objects, like rocks and boulders, but when it comes down to it, it’s magic against magic. You and your opponent pretty much set your magic against each other, and the first person to break the other wins. And when I say break, I mean break. You don’t survive that kind of warfare. At least not sane. When you put that much magic up in defense, or offense, and someone cracks it, it shatters. It’s like a rubber band. You cut the band, and it’ll snap back at you. All that magic coming back into you? That fast? You fry.”

Cat thought back. She had done that to the muscled guy, the second person who had tried to throw rocks at her. She could remember his face, the features clenched in pain after she had gotten through with him.

“What happens?”

“You lose the ability to conduct the energy. You lose the ability to do magic. Either that or you die. That’s why you can’t mess with it, Cat. You might be having fun, but you could kill someone like that, especially with your uncontrollable power. You need to watch yourself. You’re tendencies are starting to lean towards the sadistic.” Aidan gave a shrug, and left the room.

Cat stared down at her hands. She rubbed her thumbs across her fingers, and sparks flew. Lightning crackled softly before dissipating. She clenched her fists, and left the room as well.