Enchanted Tale

Fifteen: Stored Magic

My mind was at ease when Anita walked through the door. She had a bucket of water in her hands. She smiled when she saw me looking back at her.

"Good evening Elle." She greeted.

"Hello." I answered back.

"How's your leg darling?" She asked setting the bowl of water on the table in front of me.

"I don't know I can't feel it. What did you do?" I asked.

"Well dear, it was infected. I had to take the infection out of your body."

My eyes went wide. "So what exactly did you do?" I asked again.

"I used magic of course. I removed the germs from your body along with some of the feeling in your leg. It's merely a side effect, you have nothing to worry about."

I didn't know how to feel about that statement. I should be happy because my leg was no longer ill, but I felt I should be worried because I couldn't feel it and I don't know how long that will last.

"Where are we?" I asked. This wasn't her cottage. The room was small and made up of wood instead of stone and plaster. The fireplace was the only stone part of this place. There were two tables, and a small window that had a black curtain over it.

"You know that wall you fell asleep against moments earlier?" She asked.

"Yes."

"We're on the other side of that wall. I couldn't quite carry you to my cottage without using magic so I just brought you here."

"How did you find me?"

"I'd been in town for a little while. And just as I was about to leave I saw you there injured and helpless."

"Oh. . Well um, thank you."

She nodded and turned to the bowl on the table. She lifted it without touching it. As it lifted, it started to glisten red. It reminded me of the red smoke that swirled round and revealed a mirror. I watched as she set it over the fire. She turned back to the table folding towels. I watched the bowl that stayed in place over the fire, resting on nothing but thin air.

"H-how can you do that with such ease?" I asked being unable to take my eyes off of the floating bowl.

She looked up at me with soft eyes. "That? Oh, well it's easy. All you have to do is give it a task."

I squinted my eyes. "A task? What do you mean by that?"

"One thing you must know about magic is that your heart and mind play a big part in it. Your heart has to believe and your mind has to achieve. It's silly I know, but when I say give it a task, I mean know what you want that item to do. It's like a child, you tell them to do something that they don't know how to do, they won't even try. But if you give them an extra push or instruction they can complete the task. In our case, the child is the inanimate object and that extra push or instruction is our magic."

"But I tried that whilst I was in the dungeon and the object only shuffled."

"That indicates how much you actually believe in yourself. Your belief system only ranges to the amount of a shuffle. . Which is basically nothing." She explained.

I looked down. She was right. I did doubt myself plenty of times whilst in there. Maybe if I just believed in myself, I could have gotten out of there faster. I sat there in silence for a bit as she brought the bowl back to the table. The water was boiling.

"Do witches not have wands?" I asked thinking of all the stories I read when I was younger.

She scoffed. "If all our magic came from a stick how powerful would we actually be? We wouldn't be able to truly call ourselves witches or wizards. If that was the case then anyone who had a brain and a stick could be magical!"

"So the wand mythos is just that? A myth."

She stood there for a moment. "Well no, some do use wands. But not for the purposes that you're thinking of. Wands are used to store magic. As people get older they get weaker, their magic included. But if you store it away, it won't age with you. Therefore your magic is just as powerful as it was before. And if you have children, then they can inherit the magic through that wand."

"Do you know if my parents had a wand?"

"I'm not sure. If they did, they wouldn't just leave it about. Wands can sometimes be a burden. If the wrong person gets ahold of a wand with stored magic, they can become very powerful. And since your mother was great w--" I didn't notice her abrupt stop because I was trying to remember if my mother or father had ever had a wand. I couldn't remember ever seeing them with one, or even talking about it.

I looked up at her and she frantically grabbed the towel and dipped it in the hot water.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes, yes, but um, instead of a wand, maybe they had a book of spells?" She asked.

I thought long and hard about that one. I do remember sometimes she would be reading a book. I always referred to it as "the book with pretty markings on it." That would probably be the book of spells, it only made sense.

"Well, I suppose. However, I never knew what it actually was."

Her eyes grew wide and she drew closer to me, interested and eager. "Do you know where it is?

"No. . I don't know where she put it. I reckon it's in the cottage somewhere."

"Can you bring it to me? Once you return home can you let me see it?" She asked grabbing onto my hand.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "If I can find it. I figure I would have found it by now. Our cottage isn't that big."

She walked back to her previous position in deep thought. I didn't know why she was acting so strangely but that book seemed to have significance.

"I'm sure it'll come up. And when I find it I'll bring it to you, if it's that important to you." I promised.

She smiled. "That would be brilliant. That book holds the key to a new life for everyone. It has the power to do great things." She explained as she soaked the towel into the bowl. "Now brace yourself dear, the feeling in your leg could have possibly returned." She warned.

I took a deep breath in. She dropped the towel right onto my wound. She warned right, I could feel the heat on my knee and I yelped wanting to throw the towel off of me.

"I-it's back. The feelings back." I heaved.

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NEXT CHAPTER:

"Self Capability"

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