The Crime in Callahan's Morrow - being rewritten

Chapter 18: Pen and Paper

XVIII.

"Vastness of realms brings forth the variegation."

~Alessia of the Forgotten Tribe
the first Battle Witch to unify all Witches under one command

The peculiarity of a stippling flare of power must be done with uttermost care. One can never achieve a fruitful resonance, if not dedicated to the task with an ardent spirit.

A witch never stops in their quest for knowledge, nor do they submit to the intricacies of the transience of changing times.

The ancient book was somewhat interesting. Its pages withered with time, a bit yellowed at the corners, but still in good shape as it laid on her work desk opened somewhere in the middle where she'd just stopped reading.

Nicole pondered the last few sentences, grasping a bit of an understanding of the witches as a society. It was abundantly clear she hadn't had the foggiest about them, and this old tome containing the philosophy of spells and power and magic at least gave her some info on this particular ideology.

Honestly, it amazed her how easily witches found bending elements and energy to their will as if they didn't answer to laws of nature but were 'born of nature'. It was also interesting to read about spells and techniques like the one described a few pages behind where the caster gripped the air (grip with what wasn't really clear to her) and used it to repel anyone and anything standing in their way. To have that kind of a power move under belt would be awesome. An enemy attacking you? Sweep them out of the way. Brilliant!

Maybe expand magic and catch air? No? Nicole let her power build inside her body and then, once she deemed it enough, discharged it all at the same time. It danced around her with certain vibrancy, though she found it tasking to keep a hold on her power spread so loose and didn't even think she could command it to 'grab' the air.

"What are you doing?"

Nicole startled, almost knocking down half of the things strewn on her desk. After righting a cup that still held some coffee, she noticed Xavier watching her with blatant interest. Though, his dark eyes held a confusing note of worry.

"Um, I found some interesting ideas on how to use magic-"

"I can see that," he interrupted, his tone serious for once.

Nicole opened her mouth again to continue but he beat her to it.

"You'll only get hurt by that." He pointed at the brown-covered tome in her hands.

"Why?" Nicole could feel her interrogation mode awakening, her eyes narrowing as she stared Xavier down. A tingle of curiosity grew like a budding plant as she waited for his answer.

"Witches aren't really welcome in Slipihira Astoria." His glare seemed as hard as hers. "You should be careful at least."

"You still haven't told me anything I don't already know," Nicole countered. She couldn't understand why he would be so evasive. She was missing a key piece of information.

A sigh and then, "Nicole..."

"What, Xavier?"

Xavier's glare morphed into one of his borderline annoyed expressions. He pulled a black tie from his hair only to tie it back up, into something a bit higher than the previous low ponytail.

"As I said, witches aren't liked in the Union. It may not be as prominent in the smaller places like Callahan's Morrow but in the big cities...It can get crazy." He paused and stretched to grab his laptop from the desk, turning it on and clicking a bit before he settled it on his tights.