The Story of Udonia

Chapter Seventeen: Magical

The response to the attack was explosive. People were confused, angry, and sympathetic. Lacey's flight back from Australia arrived around the same time that mine did. We met in the airport.
She came running over to me with arms flailing. She dropped her suitcase and squeezed me tight.
"Claire! I'm sorry! It's my fault! I should have been there! I should have never let you convince me to go to Australia!" She was speaking very quickly and wouldn't let me go.
"Lacey." I parted her head. "I'm fine, I swear...but I won't be if you keep squeezing me."
She let me go and picked up her bags. "I still should have been there."
"Lacey, if you came with us you probably wouldn't have left us alone for one minute." I linked arms with her. "Let me just say, Ashton and I were so horny that we would have done it with you in the room." I laughed.
Lacey grimaced and shook it off. "Whatever, I'm adding in more security at the castle."
"That reminds me, there is something I wanted to offer you..."
She looked at me with confusion. "What?" She asked.
"I want to make you head of security in the whole castle instead of just my personal body guard. You will also be head of staff." I smiled and waited for her reaction.
She stopped and stood still in shock. We currently didn't have anyone in those positions because they quit after my family died. I turned my head to look at her profile. I watched as a smile appeared in her face.
"Wow, yes, I would love to do that!" She yelled. "Oh! I have so many ideas." She was practically shaking with excitement. "Bun I get to pick out my replacement." She said.
"Of course."
"Okay. Let's get back then. There's a limo out front and a couple of other cars with guards." She lead me outside.
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Once home, I showered and ate breakfast. I then unpacked and called Jasmine to explain what had happened while I unpacked.
"You think she was a witch?!" Jasmine seemed very distressed by this.
"Yeah. How else would she be able to pass through my magic and not be completely discombobulated by the purple magic that came out of my body?!" I argued.
"Claire...this isn't good. This wasn't supposed to happen this fast."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
There was a pause. "Never mind." She replied. "I'm coming by and to try to teach you more magic. We may be at it for hours." She said and hung up before I could reply.
I put my phone down and pulled out my make-up bag. I emptied it on my vanity and began to rearrange everything when my phone rang. I picked it up and saw Ashley's name on the screen. I hadn't talked to her yet. She was probably freaking out.
"Hey, did Ashton call you?" I asked.
"Oh my god! Yes! He explained it. We saw it on the news. Are you okay Claire?!" Her voice was concerned.
"I'm fine Ashley. I'm just unpacking."
"Do you have any idea who this witch could be?" She asked.
"I'm not sure." I frowned at looked in the mirror.
I examined my bruises. I realized that I hadn't really been sure of much recently.
"Ashley, Jasmine is coming over to teach me some more." I said.
"Hopefully she will do some self defense stuff." She added.
"Yeah, maybe. I'll have to call you tomorrow. Maybe we'll get together. I still need to hear details about who this boyfriend of yours is."
She sighed. "Oh yeah...I forgot that you know about that."
"I don't know much. Why can't you just tell me?"
"Well you kept you and my brother a secret." She argued.
She was right Ashton and I were sort together for like two months before she knew. It was fair...or it wasn't. She has been with this guy in secret for much longer than two months.
How does the media not know yet?! Or maybe they do.
"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow." Ashley replied.
"Yeah, bye." I hung up my phone and pulled up Google.
I looked up news on Ashley. She hadn't been around much. She stayed home or went shopping. That was all she did.
That makes her sound like a lazy diva. She was spending time with her father while he was still around and she was learning how to run the kingdom in his place. The only other place she had been was the office.
Their company was called Hikaru Global. When Eric Covington was diagnosed with cancer, he retired from the company. The position of C.E.O. was given to a man named Stephen Claymoore. Ashton was relieved for the temp and decided that he would keep Stephen as C.E.O. after Mr. Covington dies. He just had to tell his father about his choice to clear his conscious before his father dies. I've been telling him to tell his father since he had the epiphany. He said he'll do it when he comes back from college. Anyways, I don't know much about this Stephen, but I know that he is rich, smart, and attractive. Like big burly and rugged man attractive. (I've seen pictures in articles.) Ashley has an interest in the company. She wants to try to get involved with stuff there too. She had been to the office like every other day.
I gasped. She is dating someone in the office! I giggled and then there was a knock at my door.
I turned off my phone and threw it in my bed. One of my maids was at the door to collect my laundry from the trip. I handed her the hamper. She had showed Jasmine to my room. I thanked her and she left.
"Hey." I smiled at Jasmine. "Sorry about the mess." I gestured to all the stuff surrounding my suitcase. "Still unpacking."
"It's fine." She shrugged and sat in the foot of the bed. "Now explain everything to me again in full detail."
I sighed and took in a deep breath as I explained everything again. She held her questions till the end.
"What was the message?" She asked.
"That someone wanted me dead!" I yelled. "I didn't mention that to any of my guards, except Lacey."
"Okay, and why didn't you defend yourself?" Jasmine asked next.
I took a breath and searched my thoughts. "I don't really know...something about her presence made me feel stunned. I wasn't sure what I could and couldn't do. I was just very distraught. And something about her made me feel like that. Like she was a beacon that was sending off some sort of magic that made me feel...weak. Whatever, Ashton didn't seem bothered. Maybe I just don't have good instincts."
Jasmine listened intently. "No." She shook her head. "You have good instincts. It's a witch thing. You are right. She probably cast some sort of spell that would affect your magic."
"I thought we aren't the kind of witches that cast spells?" I argued.
"Some dark witches do. It's an older, more dangerous power that comes with black magic. Every spell requires ingredients. Some of the spells use a bird feather and others use human body parts. It varies for what spell you are using and how intense it is." She explained and observed my horrified expression. "Yeah, we don't do that."
Jasmine stood up and moved over to my vanity. She observed how I had only put away half of my make-up items. She turned and looked at my suitcase on my bed. She then glanced over at me. We locked eyes.
"You know you could put all this away with a flick of your wrist?" She smirked. "Have you ever seen Mary Poppins?" She asked.
"Yeah..." I responded.
"Remember the Spoonful of Sugar scene, when she snapped her fingers and everything was cleaned up?" I nodded. "Well, you can do that, but you don't have to sing or snap...unless you want to."

She stood back toward the door. "I can't do it because I don't know where anything goes, but I can tell you how."
"Okay." I smiled.
"Alright, well just look at your target. The pile of mess. And envision where all of it is meant to go. Look at each object and picture it in your head the way it is meant to be. Then you'll move it all at once. Like moving the pen on your desk, but on a larger scale." She directed me.
I looked at the mess of make-up on my vanity top. I did as Jasmine said and watched as make-up moved to where it was supposed to be.
"That was awesome." I smiled.
"Good job." Jasmine seemed more pleased with her teaching skills than my abilities.
We continued to clean my room. Jasmine taught me a few other tricks too. They all had to do with moving objects. Like moving objects more than just a few inches on the desk and actually flying them through the air. She made a hook appear out of thin air and I maneuvered objects through the hoop. It was fun. And then I got repetitive.
After an hour of that, I wanted to do something more.
I grumbled. "What else can you teach me?" I asked.
"There is also moving objects..."
I cut her off. "No more object moving!" I snipped.
Jasmine's eyebrows lowered. "If you would let me finish. There is also moving objects through walls or other objects."
"Oh..." I frowned. "That sounds interesting."
"That is difficult. Too far out of your range. Before you can do that, you have to learn to move our own body through walls or objects. Which is also a higher difficulty level. You need to learn something a little more basic first...like conjuring or invisibility."
I was getting excited. "Conjuring?! Invisibility?! Those are low level?" I asked.
"Well, yeah. Invisibility is lower than conjuring because conjuring can be conjuring something you have, but just bringing it to you, or just making something out of thin air. And then you can conjure small things like an apple or larger things like entire buildings. While invisibility is just a state of the body...like astral projection or teleportation."
It was a while new world that was just shown to me.
"What else can we do?" I asked curiously.
"Well, you know the force field you make. We can make that, but it literally repels things. We can also temporarily freeze time, similar to how you slow things with the force field, but it stops time in whatever room you're in." She explained. "We can also conjure fire balls and energy balls. Those are used for battle against other witches." Jasmine paused and looked at the amazement in my eyes. "Honestly, I could keep going, but I don't want to give you information overload. We will get to all of that stuff later. It all takes practice." She headed for the door. "I want you to practice moving things. Just play around." Jasmine directed and opened the door. "Don't move anything too big and be careful." She warned.
"Okay." I nodded.
Jasmine left me in wonderment.