Normalcy to Magic

6

...

No one saw Principal Comstock around the school a whole lot. It seemed that only Patton saw her, for his class. But even he didn't see what she was working on. It sat in the corner of the dungeon, the only thing not covered in paper. She had only just moved it there.

A machine like this had only been built a couple times before. It was relatively small, the machinery encased in glass. A handprint was on the outside, guiding anyone who'd use it. From that print there was a spiral shape, moving around a wand.

The mechanism was simple. It would, upon a magic user's hand being placed in it, would remove the magic they direct (intentional or unintentional) and transfer it to the wand for use by anyone with wandcasting training. Principal Comstock seemed to be one of the rare magic users who went through with wandcasting. It was mostly used by non-magic parents to entertain and comfort their magical children, and was a fairly uncommon form of magic. She made an effort to learn it, though, and was very excited at the prospects of this machine.

She thought she'd have to get hundreds of students to possibly have all of the gifts in wands. From what the prints had said, you couldn't have more than one gift in a wand. But Patton's pathothaumaturgy was promising. Any gift she wanted, as one? Perfect.

...

Patton came to class earlier than he normally would that day, trying to avoid his friends. He couldn't bear to accidentally manipulate them again. His exhaustion was visible, having not slept at all that night.

"You're here early, Patton," Principal Comstock said as he entered the dungeon, "and you look awful."

I don't want to manipulate her, Patton thought, but it wouldn't hurt if she thought I was okay. "I'm-"

"Tell me the truth Patton." Principal Comstock waved her arms slightly as she said this. It almost looked like an advanced spellcasting move he saw Logan practicing, though he couldn't remember what Logan said it was for.

"I didn't sleep at all last night," he replied, quickly, barely thinking about it.

"And why was that?" She made the movements again.

"I don't wanna manipulate my friends."

Principal Comstock stifled her smile.

"I keep doing it accidentally, and I really don't want to. I thought I was supposed to learn how to stop it."

"I can certainly help," Comstock walked towards her machine, "just put your hand right here and you won't have to worry about it anymore."

Patton looked at the glowing spiral handprint on the machine. It looked kind of suspicious, and he didn't want to just give her this right away. She'd hardly taught him anything. "Can I think about it first?" Patton asked, hesitantly leaving the classroom.

"Of course!" She replied, waving him out.

...

"Logan?" Patton asked as he walked into their dorm, "what does a gift transfer machine look like?"

"I can show you the diagram," he quickly slides the book off of his shelf and opens it to a tabbed page.

"Principal Comstock has that machine," Patton pointed to the wand transfer machine, "she tried to get me to use it."

"Did you?"

"I told her I'd think about it."

"You can't stay at this school if you let her use it on you."

...

Roman had finally finished his script. A perfect play. He had to show it to his friends, correction, he had to show it to Patton. He had to convince him to do this play with him.

"Patton?" He said, entering the dorm, "can I ask you about something?"

"Of course!" Patton replied, sitting up on his bed and patting the spot next to him lightly.

Roman sat down, holding the script out in front of him. "I wrote a play."

"Oh my gosh can I read it?" Patton asked excitedly.

"I uh," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I wanted you to be in it."

"Wow! Who do you want me to play?"

Roman layed out the plot for Patton, detailing the lovers' trials and struggles with expectations of their society. The villain? A dragon, infected with the spirits of their insecurities. Until they overcome everything, they cannot overtake the villain.

"And I wanted you to play the baker boy," Roman finished

"Wow, uh," Patton's face went red, "I'd love to, when's rehearsal?"

"Whenever you want it to be," Roman replied, smiling.

...

Virgil sat on his bed, confused over his spellcasting homework. They'd supposedly gone over this weeks ago, and they had a test on all of it tomorrow. He glanced over at Logan, who was practicing things way beyond what they'd learned in class, and he was barely scraping by. Maybe I should ask him for help, he thought, But he probably wouldn't want to.

"Did you need help?" Logan asked, almost appearing next to Virgil.

Virgil jumped back slightly, startled at the sudden presence "Jeez, how do you keep reading my mind?"

"I try not to, but if someone is yelling for your help across the room, sometimes you can't stop it. So what do you need help with?"

"Spellcasting," Virgil groaned, laying back on his bed, "I barely remember any of this."

Logan went over a few of the spells and movements with him, until he was understanding everything they needed to for their test. Eventually, they were just talking.

"Can I take you somewhere?" Virgil asked, standing up and walking a few steps towards the window.

"Sure." Logan followed Virgil out the window. He grabbed Logan's hand.

"They won't see us." He dragged him out to a small, ancient-looking tower on the outskirts of the school campus. They let go of each other's hands to climb up, confident that they wouldn't be spotted in that minute or so.

Both atop the tower, they looked upon the distant horizon, the sun slowly setting in the sky.

"It's beautiful," was all Logan could manage to say.

Virgil smiled, looking at the magnificent landscape before turning to Logan, the beautiful portrait sitting beside him. He took his hand in his again, and Logan's face tinted red.

"Are they going to catch us?" He asked.

"I hope not."

...