(x) Irregular Magic

chapter 18 - 102 Yellow Flower Quarter

Fire was at the same time destructive and benevolent; beautiful as it was terrible; it was one of those things that increased in beauty with magnitude as well as devastation. Or some poetic bull like that, Mattie thought, trying to push back the revulsion she felt.

It was more than mere flames that enveloped her flat from miniature garden to roof. Blackflare—the sort of fire magic found in the black marketplaces—was able to burn a boulder to ashes in a matter seconds. Magicked wood could hardly stand a chance.

Mattie was rooted to where she stood, watching with horror at her burning flat. If she had been thinking straight, she would have realized that it was no ordinary fire and running headfirst towards it was about the worst idea she could have had. Her flat, like all the other apartments in Yellow Flower, was magicked with anti-flare, so that accidental fires would immediately be put out. However, it didn't mean mages couldn't use magic to commit arson. Blackflare was more than capable of that.

The boy who had brought her rounded the corner, without a single drop of sweat on his face. He grabbed onto her arm and pushed something red and soft into her hands. "Just stay here."

She pulled on the hat Spade had given her with numb fingers. As Mattie vanished from view, the boy spread his arms wide and took a deep breath.

"Quench the anger of the impassioned," the boy spoke, his voice suddenly taking on a deeper tone. The sudden voice made the girls whip around in shock. He kept going with the spell. "Wave over wave, I call upon the ruler of the seas, Poseidus." He held out his hands and made a gesture like he was crushing something between his fingers. A rushing sound in the air followed the movement.

It was magic like she had never witnessed before, on a scale she would have thought impossible by a single mage.

The girls who were watching the fire burn jumped back, screaming. One of them, who had been holding a tin of blackflare suddenly dropped it and fell onto the ground. With the force of impact, it sizzled and caught fire, causing more shrieks.

"Put that out!" Saratha yelled, leaping away from the dark flames, steadily growing bigger. The brunette had her hands clapped to her face. Soon it had joined the main fire as if directed.

"What the—" Diana thrust her finger into the air, pointing at the odd color of the sky. It looked murkier but still transparent. As the boy slowly drew apart his hands, the darkness in the sky seemed to grow larger and even blacker. And then he brought them down in one lightning-fast movement, like he was slamming his fists on a table.

"What's that—"

Then, what seemed like hundreds of gallons of water poured down on the house from above, as if the gates of heaven had suddenly burst open. Mattie swore she could taste the salt in the air; it wasn't just water, but seawater.

They were close enough that the torrential wave had drenched them. When it cleared, their hair was stuck to their faces and long strings of seaweed had wound around them. The girls looked around wildly and caught sight of the young mage. They went pale. Without a word, they hurtled down the street, apparently in the direction of the tele-stop.

Before they had even left her field of vision, Mattie sprinted up the steps to her house and stopped short of the door, her sneaks skidding under her.

It was an awful sight. The structural frame of the house remained, and for the most part the walls were intact, having survived through tougher enchantments. However, everything was blackened with the vicious fire that had raged only moments before. There was also the acrid mingling of burnt wood and ocean water.

The anti-theft spells had cracked, leaving a pool of what looked like melted gold at the threshold. Mattie stepped over the puddle of broken magic and pushed at the door. The doorknob was likewise disfigured beyond use. When it didn't budge, she kicked at it.