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blueheronteanookTitle: Hollow (1)
Rating: Teen
Major Warnings: racism
Genre: Crossover
Summary:Matthew Verona and Lucy are stranded in a world where people are born with Magic
Mathew felt unnerved by the woman sitting opposite him, she reminded him of his father. It was odd, his father had looked young, younger than Mathew did now, while this woman looked old. But they had the same feel. The way a person got when they got to the point they were older than most people they knew, he’d seen it in his father and he saw it here.
It brought back memories that made his eye sockets itch. Bad enough to make him want to squirm. It didn’t help that the woman was staring at them, her face stern and unreadable. Her appearance was another thing that bothered him. Her features were too perfect, not a wrinkle or a loose hair to be found, crafted almost like a fae or heartless, another reminder of his father.
In an attempt to distract himself he reached into his satchel and pulled out a book. After 8 years of being unable and uninterested in practice he had grown more than rusty. He wanted to pull his weight as a practitioner of kennet, and that meant study. It had been a wakeup call that the book he was reading now was being lent to him by Verona, her passing knowledge out paced him in his own field.
He read over the book without really taking anything in, he was distracted thinking of home, of what he was missing and if he would ever see it again. Before he let his mind wander down that rabbit hole he heard the door open behind him.
A girl walked in, speaking: “I’m sorry to bother, but Mr Toff needs some help and he asked me to fetch you.”.
The woman stood and looked towards Lucy, saying “Behave” to her before walking out the door following the girl.
Lucy didn’t react, but he could see Grandfather, in familiar form, shift uncomfortably.
He wasn’t sure what to do, in a situation like this. But Lucy didn’t do anything, so he followed her lead and turned his attention back to the book.
He’d never been very good at studying, he’d preferred learning the practice by doing. His head wasn’t built for a lot of the more complicated theory that went on behind the scenes of the hollow practices.
It didn’t take long for him to get bored, pull out his phone and start playing a game.
He’d almost finished a level, when the door to the office and Marrion Torres walked out, gesturing into her office.
“Please come in,” She said. “We need to discuss you future.”
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Lucy didn’t feel bulletproof, she didn’t have any of her clothes or products. She had flaws in appearance and the two people in front of her brought that into contrast.
They both had that ‘too perfect’ look, Lucy couldn’t tell if she was jealous or unnerved, they reminded her of the beautiful man who had gone after her mother. She would have to ask Mathew what they looked like under his Sight.
There were two seats in front of Mrs Torres,Lucy and Louise took them, the others standing behind. Mrs Torres extended a hand, Lucy took it first.
“Marion Torres”
“Lucy Ellingson, Law and War” She nodded towards her Familiar “and my familiar Grandfather”
“Verona Hayward, Nascent Sorceress, My familiar Juliet”
“Mathew Moss, Host and Heartless”
“Louse Bayer”
The man behind Torres didn’t say a word.
In the meantime she took one of Guilhermes' lessons to heart, adjusting her posture to indicate it was time for Mrs Torres to speak.
“Mr Abanathey,” Mrs Torres said “has informed me that you are mages, not off this world.”
“We don’t know enough to say” Lucy said “There are multiple possibilities, but that’s they leading theory. And we use the term practitioner, ‘mage’ has specific connotation we’re from”
“The National Mage Investigative Service as represented by Mr Abenathey here has recommended that you are kept here, at Osthorne Academy as we have resources to monitor and look after Mages who fall outside the average, like yourself.”
Mages had their own separate government, Lucy wasn’t sure how she felt about that, especially when, as far as she was aware, there wasn’t infrastructure in place to handle interactions with the Innocent. She filed away for later.
“I’m happy to say that Osthorne Academy is happy to welcome you” Torres said in a practiced voice. “We are a highly respected institution as both a school that has been training for nearly 90 years and more recently a hub for research on the cutting edge of magic, pioneered by one of our very own students”
“Thank you” Louise said.
“We were told you are able to provide your own accommodation”
“We need your permission” Verona said
“Will it cause any problems?”
“It shouldn’t”
“Then you have it, one of our teachers asked to be present when it takes place.”
“No problem”
Abernathy spoke
“As communicated, you will be allowing the staff here to research your abilities”
“That might not be the best phrasing,” Lucy said. It seemed he didn’t fully grasp how the practice worked. “The practice is more complicated, but we will allow people to research how we perform magic.”
“Yes, yes” he said, dismissively.
“Additionally I was told you cannot Lie?” Mrs Torres asked
We can, but not without steep consequences, except Louise who remains Innocent.
“Ahh, and that’s common of all mages er, practitioners, where you are from?”
“Yes”
“Well, Lucille, I’m excited to get to know you better, would you like a tour?”
“Before we do, could we tie a quick bow on all this?“ Lucy asked “Clarify a few things”
“Of course”
“Fantastic, then to be clear about what is expected here, you and those that fall under your jurisdiction, as the hosting party agree to allow us to stay here for an indefinite basis, until such as time as we can return home, extending board, space for the creation of a liminal realm with freedoms to practice for the duration, excusing exceptional circumstance such as the closure of the school. In return we allow you research into the practice,what you describe as magic ,to the degree that it doesn't cause us significant detriment…”
Mrs Torres Eyebrows’s Furrowed
“With the information being communicated exclusively to the people on this property and The National Mage Investigative Service. With termination of these responsibilities ending when we are able to return home, laying no claim over us or our possessions, our self or our souls. Additionally you as the hosting party do not take responsibility for our safety In both the Karmic and legal understandings of the word, except from those who fall under your jurisdiction or through negligence…”
Abernathy sighed
“Nor do you take responsibility for our actions , again in both the Karmic and legal understandings, except actions you specifically request of us or through which our hands are forced through scenarios caused by your action or negligence. We as the Guest party are too avoid, avoid causing permanent damage, to property or people excluding request or exceptional circumstance and to not make extended claim over the property, the school, or the people and others housed within it”
“Finally, in lieu of a forswearing on failure to uphold, or differing interpretations of the agreement, mediation must come from an unbiased third part, as much as that could be said to exist.”
“Mr Abernathy warned me you lot where… particular.”
“It’s pretty boilerplate with some minor alterations, I’m happy with a verbal agreement, but I can put it in writing if you want.”
“It seems … fine”
“So Sworn?” Lucy asked
“Yes” Mrs Torres said
“Then the terms are accepted, this oath is bound and binding”
“Now, if you don’t mind, It has been a very exhausting week”
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“I need to ask,” Verona said “Is this a stable realm?”
“Stable Realm?” Rahul asked
“Yeah, mixing realm effects can get funky quick.”
“Funky is a word for it,” Lucy commented.
“Point is, if the borders of this place or the rules of this place are in flux while i'm creating a space, things start folding, it could collapse both realms.”
“I mean,I don’t know if it helps but ,this is a spatial expansion with a stone on water technique, it's been like this for years“
“Good enough for me.” Verona said
“Ronnie” Lucy warned
“And this is going to create a house?” Rahul asked
“Not exactly” Verona said, taking out a pen, she uncapped it to reveal a key embedded in it and walked up to the post. “The house already exists, but it exists in a liminal realm, I defined as my demesne”
“And liminal realms are different from stable realms?”
“No, A liminal realm can be stable, but this one won’t be until I lock it down” Verona Inserted the key into a crack in the wood. “I’m using City magic to create a space for the house to exist in”
“How is City magic different from normal magic?” Rahul asked, excited.
“It’s an offshoot of regular shamanism, the spirits of places -Loci- are different from regular spirits, more defined, both by space and the people that live within it, makes them operate by slightly different rules.”
Rahul bumped Ivy’s shoulder, Louise’s Eyes had started bleeding.
Verona Pulled on the key, using it as a lever and the path they were on split, like a second one had been hidden underneath, like the hand of a clock and the House on Half street began to appear, like a two dimensional image turning from its side to face them, a slice of reality.
Then it stopped, then started again, then stopped.
Mathew turned to look at Verona.
She was tugging at the key with both hands, moving it in fits and starts
“Everything okay?” Rahul asked
“Yeah, yeah” Verona said, through gritted teeth “Just heavier than a street sign”
Juliet walked over to the other side of the post and rammed her shoulder into it. It seemed to do the trick as the street kept expanding, moving the two cottages on either side apart, like a book unfolding, until a small one way street leading up to a ramshackle three story house was visible.
“Ronnie, you’ve really got to get fitter.”
Verona, too tired to talk, signed a yapping hand at Lucy.
Then she looked at Rahul and gestured for him to head towards the house.
Rahul was speechless.
They took off towards the house, Verona snapping her fingers to open the door.
“Lucy, you already have guest rights,” Verona said “Mathew, I invite you to shelter in my demesne for as long as you need, Practice at your leisure.”
Mathew nodded his head “Your hospitality is recognized and appreciated.”
“Couple of things, the alchemy lab in the back can be delicate, maybe don’t go back there, and if you can’t get hot water, call me and I'll go kick the geyser.”
“This is… wow” Rahul said
“How are you surprised by this?” Ivy asked “It’s just magic”
“Yeah but this… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Cool, right?” Verona said grinning.
“Yeah” Rahul said grinning back.
Verona led them into the living room filled with bookshelves and a couple of chairs, recliners and couches.
“Tea, Coffee?”
Lucy nodded
“Coffee” Mathew said
“Same” from Louise
Rahul and Ivy had Coffee, Tea for Webb and Torres, Verona and Juliet went into the back.
Mathew collapsed onto a couch, Lousie sat down, next to him, eyes still bleeding.
“Oh dear” Torres said seeing Louise
“Eyes?” Louse asked, turning to him.
“Yep” Mathew said
“It’s nothing to worry about” Louise said to the others “won't even stain”
“What causes it?” Mrs Webb asked.
“I saw something I wasn’t prepared to, It shattered my Innocence, now when I see something that does, it reopens those old wounds”
“Innocence?”
“Protections from the True nature of the world” Lucy said “for those unaware,who we call the Innocent”
“Good word” Ivy said
“We have complicated feelings about it” Lucy said “The Institution, not the word.”
“How so?”
“It’s artificial, the result of millenia old agreements, that have, while saving countless human lives, have disenfranchised countless Others”
“Others” Torres said “You’ve mentioned the term before”
“Non-humans” Lucy said “It's a catch-all for everything from the spirit of green in a bottle cap, to gods. Grandfather and Juliet are Other, Grandfather’s a dog of war, and Juliet is a fetch.”
“We have the benefit of a Human appearance, we don’t shatter innocence by being seen” Matthew added “Most Others are less fortunate.”
Lucy nodded.
“We?” Ivy asked.
“To a much lesser degree, all practitioners are considered slightly Other. It's a part of becoming a practitioner, but I used to be fully Other, only recently has the universe considered me human again.”
Ivy went to ask something but was beaten by Rahul
“These books,” He said, gesturing “Are they magic?”
“Kinda!” Verona called from the back room “Most were made magically!”
“They’re books that were never written” Juliet said, She leaned conspiratorially “Thing is most books aren't written because they aren’t very good.”
“I keep the magical stuff and books on practice in the glass case!”
Lucy pointed to it, it was near the back, by the counter.
“And my personal library’s upstairs” Verona said coming out of the back with a tray, she distributed mismatched cups.
“You said you become a practitioner,” Ivy said slowly.
“Yes?” Mathew said.
“Aren't you born a practitioner?”
“No, is that how it works here?” Verona said.
“I thought it was the same for you.”
“No, we perform a ritual called Awakening” Lucy said “Basically we sign on to a millenia old contract, giving up our ability to lie freely and in return our words and actions hold weight and we can see the world as it truly is.”
“How does it work here?” Verona asked
“Some people just have it.” Mr Torres said.
Verona frowned.
“Regretting not taking the Driscoll deal?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah”
“So you’re just… normal?” Mrs Webb asked
“We were, as much as anyone is ‘normal’” Lucy said, levelly.
“Is everyone from your world magic?” Ivy asked.
“No, most people are unaware of magic, it's a side effect of the contract I mentioned, even if it wasn’t you give up alot of protections and take on a lot of risk. It's not for everyone, Louise isn’t, for example.”
Louise gave a mock wave.
“I have a thousand questions,” Rahul said, grinning.
“Same here,” Verona said.
“I think they will have to wait” Louise said “We are all quite tired”
“Of course” Mrs Torres said, standing “I’m sorry we’ve kept you so long”
The visitors stood and filed their way out, one by one.
“Thank you” Ivy said, before closing the door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verona stood in the doorway waiting for Mr Chaudhary to notice her. He was excited and she liked that, it reminded her of how she felt about the practice. Too many people didn’t follow their passions. That wasn’t fair, McCauligh, Matthew and even Lucy , hadn’t been given the option, or doing so would have been selfish.
Still it resonated with her the way Mr Chaudhary spoke. Honestly it reminded her of Mr Belanger, despite his many flaws, he had had a real passion for both the practice and teaching.
Osthorne was very different front the Blue Heron, but she thought a lot of that had to with the fact that the paradigm these mages lived under was totally different from home. Much less expectation, much less politics.
She would have though about it more, if Mr Chaudhary hadn’t noticed her.
“Sorry, were you looking for something?” He asked.
Everyone had turned to look at her.
“I was hoping” she said slowly “to audit a class, get an idea of how magic works”
That seemed to enthuse him even more “Of course, take a seat”
Verona took a seat at the back of the classroom. It reminded her of the lab at her school, before she started long distance studying.
Verona pulled out her newest notebook as Mr Chaudhary launched back into his class, and she quickly found herself frustrated. The class was, as far as she could tell, about controlling the temperature of objects, which she could understand, but the methods he was trying to explain went over her head. He spoke about ‘touching’ the heat in an object and manipulating it with some mental image. She hated it, it felt like being back in school, always behind, Worse it frustrated her that she couldn’t ‘get’ how it worked, it just happened, she was being told the how, but not the why.
She thought back to the basic principles of the practice. Pattern, Price and Principle, when learning a new practice you needed to ask those questions. Applying them here, Was there a pattern to these mental exercises and how they related to what magic was being cast? What was footing the bill for their magic? Did it come from their Selves or was it external? How could they indicate payment without action?
By the time the lecture was winding down, Verona’s notebook was filled with questions but still empty of answers. Mr Chaudhary, started handing out beakers of water.
“Okay, so this is a pretty basic example as water is a lot more willing to move to your suggestions, but it's a great starting point for learning the technique.”
Verona got up and started towards one of the groups, opening her eyes to the sight. The world was cast anew, a thin clear plastic film and cobweb, covering chunks of meat. The people looked much the same, her sight wasn’t calibrated to analysis of other people's selfs.
She watched as one student took his beaker, filled with blood to her sight. He moved his hand to touch it, cobwebs of connection spidering out before he made contact. Then something moved across them, a glint of light flowing like a wave across the cobwebs until it entered the beaker and water,still blood red to her, began to condense across the beaker.
She would need to study that more, if she could set up a diagram and catch whatever was flowing though the Connection, she might be able to store and study it. Break down the “currency” and she could figure out who was paying and who was accepting payment.
She looked up at the students to see them staring at her.
She gave a nervous grin. Looking into there confused eyes “Something wrong?”
One of the students pointed to her eye.
“You can see that, can you?” Verona said, Her sight made her eyes purple, with spheres that caught the light at odd angles.
She blinked hard, canceling out her sight.
“Why did you do that to your eyes?” One of the students asked.
“Oh it's my …” She said, looking at Mr Chaudhary, apologetically. But he seemed intrigued.
“I don’t mean to interrupt”
It took him a second to snap out of it. “No, no, please, its interesting” He said
“Uhh it's my sight” Verona said, to blank faces. She hated being the center of attention. “The Sight is, uhh It’s one part magic sense, one part diagnostic tool, one part augury. It’s a tool every practitioner has, it lets us see the unseen, magic and the connections between things, and normally more . It varies from practitioner to practitioner.”
“Alright kids, let's focus,” Mr Chaudhary said, trying to rangel the kids back to their assigned tasks.
Verona retreated to the back of the class, to watch. Only to find Ms Gamble peeking in on the class. She waved to Verona, who slinked over.
“Hey” Ms Gamble said “I’d been meaning to talk to you.”
“Oh” Verona said “What about.”
“Magic,” Ms Gamble said.
“Oh Cool” Verona said, smiling. This was an opportunity to show she knew her stuff. “What do you want to know?”
Ms Gamble started walking down the hallway and Verona followed.
“So you mentioned you become magic by signing onto some contract, how does that work?“
She thought that would be coming.
“Well that’s the simple version” Verona said. “Magic isn’t some energy or force, it's like a collection of agreements and traditions, when we Awaken, where agreeing to both keep and be kept by them.”
“Yeah, but what do you do? How does it work?”
This was promising.
“Well, it's interesting and there isn’t a singular way to do it. The core of it is an invitation and welcome, most do it by making symbolic offerings to Others and identifying themselves to the spirits, but me and Lucy along with our friend Avery, we made interacted with a very real group of Others, Matthew included actually, while my… acquaintance Milly was knighted into it, but even the ritual in Essentials can be and often is modified”
“Essentials?”
Hook, line and sinker.
“It's a tome for novice practitioners, it contains the basics for learning the practice.”
“Mmm” Ivy said.
“You want it.” Verona said
“Using magic?”
“No, It’s just obvious, even Matthew could tell and he doesn't have eyes”
“Look-”
“I’m not saying no” Verona said
“You're not?”
“I’m not, but I want you to speak to Matthew and Lucy first”
“Can I ask why?”
“I just think you should make an informed decision is all” Verona said, “Now if you don’t mind” She jerked her thumb towards the class
Ivy nodded and Verona turned to head back, hiding her grin.
She was going to complete a set.
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Marrion Torres wasn’t sure how she felt about the practitioners at her school. To be honest she wasn’t sure about how she felt about practitioners.
It shouldn’t have bothered her. She’d long been a proponent of treating those without magic as equals. But she had never had to grapple with what that meant. Mages had to be found and taught how to use their powers, educated, not just about magic, but in having a healthy respect for the power they were born with.
The way the practitioners acted, it wasn’t with disrespect, but it unnerved her. They didn’t see magic as something to respect, for being magic, but as something to respect for what it could do.
Their talk of awakening and the seal, of taking something like magic and forcing it to obey the rules of man, seemed fundamentally wrong. When they criticized it they spoke of how to make the rules better, not remove them.
Was that bias? She had always experienced magic as something primal, raw and true to be harnessed, full of possibility. Not some stuffy contract full of rules and limitations. Maybe that shaped how they viewed it.
Mrs Webb was aghast at the very idea. She had an old view of magic, she saw it as a gift, and saw the practitioners as thieves taking something they shouldn’t have.
Rising above their station.
Marrion felt bad for even having the thought, they hadn’t done anything to make problems for her.
“It’s getting away!” She heard Verona or Juliet call out, sprinting past her window, down the corridor. The other following.
Or they were waiting until she wasn’t expecting it.
Marion stood and stepped through reality, finding the girls had already put a considerable distance between them, and had already turned a corner. She could hear yelling from the Haywards, then the shattering of glass and a “wuff” of displaced air. She tried to step far to follow but hit the metaphorical equivalent of a wall. Something rebuffing her.
She suppressed some amount of frustration and started to follow. Letting teachers who were checking on the commotion it was okay to go back to class.
She turned the corner to see a part of the hallway covered in hundreds of chalk circles, covering the wall floor and ceiling, all stemming from a broken glass jar, the ones further away spiraling and terminating prematurely. The Haywards panting , one with her hands on her knees. Ellingson stood at the other end of the hallway, Grandfather beside her and had drawn a chalk line across the floor parallel to the blast zone.
All of them were staring at a spot on the floor.
“No …” Hayward said, pausing to take in a lungful of air “...Escape”
“What” Marrion said, suppressing her frustration, “Do you think you are doing?”
“Chasing…” Another Pause, Before the Other Hayward pointed to a circle “That thing.”
Marrion turned to look at the circle, sitting inside it was the goddamned graffiti, the one that had made poor Samantha’s life awful.
“What is that doing here?”
“Tried…”
“It tried to escape.” Lucy said, then turning to Verona “You have got to get fitter.”
“Escape?”
“Ronnie wanted to bind it, get it out of here” Lucy said.
“It tried to run away when it figured out what we were doing.” The other Hayward, Juliet, said.
“It could move?”
“Apparently.” Lucy said
“Let me.” Verona said. Pulling a book out of her bag, she opened to a page with elaborate embellishment on its borders and walked over the graffiti. It tried to move away, not flowing, but writing along the floor, the same repeating message, “Samantha is a Slut”, while the tail end faded. It couldn’t move past the edge of the chalk circle.
Verona pressed the page against it and muttered something under her breath, when she pulled it away, it had moved from the floor to the page. Hayward closed the book, a self satisfied grin on her face.
“How cool was that?” She asked Lucy, who gave her a small smile.
“How cool was what?”
“Distilled chalk circles.” Verona said, indicating the shattered glass on the floor, then to the hallway.
“And you can clean it up?” Marion asked.
The smile fell off Verona's face for a second, before reappearing. “Actually, I have an Idea.”
Verona reached into her bag and pulled out two stopped vials and a strange thermos. She read the labels, put one back and withdrew a third. She started fiddling with the thermos.
“Can I ask what you are doing young lady?”
“I’ve got a vial of vacuum and a vial of anti-dust” She said. Making marks on a circle on the floor. “I’m thinking if I can pull the chalk into the air the anti-dust will get rid of it.“
She pulled a tube with a needle on one side from her back and connected it to the thermos, then plunged the needle through the chalk stopper of one of the vials. She placed it into the chalk circle she had decorated and backed away.
Lucy and the Others did as well and Marion joined them.
“aperta sesamae” Verona said, confident. The words lit up as a part of a spider web diagram on the lid of the thermos, which spanned and popped off the thermos. The chalk slid across the surfaces towards the thermos, then stopped as it reached the circle Verona had drawn. Suddenly A burst of clean air flowed over the corridor, flushing Torres, system. Like a breath mint had been rubbed over her sinuses.
The chalk circles had been consolidated into one large, solid one. She turned to Verona who was frowning, then once again her face lit up and she opened her mouth to speak. Before she could Lucy interjected.
“Do you have a mop?”
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Ivy found Lucy, on the hill between Rahul’s cottage and the school. She and Grandfather were sitting there while she strummed a guitar, she had changed outfits, but she was still wearing the fur lined military jacket. She stopped playing as Ivy approached.
“You want to become a practitioner.” Lucy said as Ivy approached.
Ivy had been hopping to ease into the subject.
“Getting right into it.” Ivy said.
“I’ll tell you what I was told when I went to Awaken.” Lucy said. “Don’t.”
Ivy didn’t like being told what to do by a child, a child who had magic no less.
“Can I ask why?”
“There’s so many reasons, I can’t think of them all.” Lucy said. “To start with, Awakening, the way you would have to do it, perpetuates harm, it reinforces a system of oppression.”
“How?”
“It… It has to do with the origins of the ritual, what it means, what it represents.For example, It’s like becoming a cop, you're signing up for and reinforcing systems that discriminate and punish people.”
“Aren’t you one?” Ivy asked.
“Yeah, but I was appointed by my community for my community, And even there, it was because if they didn’t worse people would come in from outside and take up the position.”
“So, it's okay for you to have magic, but not others?” Ivy said
“You’re not listening to me”
Time to play at the heartstrings Ivy thought, a mix of shame and righteousness
“Look, you don’t get it” Ivy said “You don’t have to live as the odd one out, you don’t have to live knowing about a world where everyone around you is special, magic, and i'm not!”
She was getting worked up now.
“You don’t have to live in a world Where you’re the only one who carries a bag, because you can’t pull what you need out of nowhere, where your alway late because you can’t fucking teleport, where teenagers look at you with pity, where you feel ugly because you can’t make yourself look however you want” She thought of Tabitha “where anyone around you could turn you the mist with a thought.I have to live, knowing I’m less than them, but you get to sit there with magic and say I don’t deserve it!.”
She stopped speaking, her heart was racing.
Silence lingered. 5 seconds, 10.
Lucy finally moved, pulling her fox mask from her bag.
“I chose the fox, because it had fangs, it was important to me that it had fangs.” She said. “When I was first told about magic, I saw it as a way to be powerful, in a world where I felt very weak.”
“Yeah” Ivy said, maybe she was getting it.
“Ivy, I am a child soldier.” Lucy said,her hand tracing the dog tag at her neck. n“Awakening into this world, I found power, yes, but at a cost. I had to live with constant danger, constant paranoia, constant loss. I learned to fight because Avery was too kind, and Verona to hurt. And maybe it’s unfair to say no to you, after all, I did get what I wanted, I got to fight injustice, I got to make a difference.”
“I think,” a voice said. When Ivy looked, Grandfather had taken the form of a man, his face unreadable. “That some of that is our fault”
Silence lingered again.
“Thank you for telling me about how you feel,” Lucy said. “I’ve been thinking alot about the ethics of magic like this, this helps me get my head around it some.”
Ivy didn’t know how to respond to that,her heart was still beating fast. She’d never said it outloud before, never put it to words. “You’re welcome,” She said.
“I won’t try to stop you.” Lucy said, standing “But I think it will hurt you more than it will help. To Awaken is to become part of an unkind world.”
With that she started to walk down the hill towards the House on Half street. Leaving Ivy to think.
She spent more time thinking about what she had said than what Lucy had. She felt lesser, she wouldn’t have been able to admit that to herself six months ago. Now she could, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. She stewed on what Lucy said, really thought about it. Then she thought about how Thabitha had magiced her away when she didn’t want to speak to her, about how Tabitha had fucked with her head, about the fear that had rushed through her when Tabitha had come near her, when last they spoke.
She already lived in an unkind world, with this she might have control.
Rating: Teen
Major Warnings: racism
Genre: Crossover
Summary:Matthew Verona and Lucy are stranded in a world where people are born with Magic
Mathew felt unnerved by the woman sitting opposite him, she reminded him of his father. It was odd, his father had looked young, younger than Mathew did now, while this woman looked old. But they had the same feel. The way a person got when they got to the point they were older than most people they knew, he’d seen it in his father and he saw it here.
It brought back memories that made his eye sockets itch. Bad enough to make him want to squirm. It didn’t help that the woman was staring at them, her face stern and unreadable. Her appearance was another thing that bothered him. Her features were too perfect, not a wrinkle or a loose hair to be found, crafted almost like a fae or heartless, another reminder of his father.
In an attempt to distract himself he reached into his satchel and pulled out a book. After 8 years of being unable and uninterested in practice he had grown more than rusty. He wanted to pull his weight as a practitioner of kennet, and that meant study. It had been a wakeup call that the book he was reading now was being lent to him by Verona, her passing knowledge out paced him in his own field.
He read over the book without really taking anything in, he was distracted thinking of home, of what he was missing and if he would ever see it again. Before he let his mind wander down that rabbit hole he heard the door open behind him.
A girl walked in, speaking: “I’m sorry to bother, but Mr Toff needs some help and he asked me to fetch you.”.
The woman stood and looked towards Lucy, saying “Behave” to her before walking out the door following the girl.
Lucy didn’t react, but he could see Grandfather, in familiar form, shift uncomfortably.
He wasn’t sure what to do, in a situation like this. But Lucy didn’t do anything, so he followed her lead and turned his attention back to the book.
He’d never been very good at studying, he’d preferred learning the practice by doing. His head wasn’t built for a lot of the more complicated theory that went on behind the scenes of the hollow practices.
It didn’t take long for him to get bored, pull out his phone and start playing a game.
He’d almost finished a level, when the door to the office and Marrion Torres walked out, gesturing into her office.
“Please come in,” She said. “We need to discuss you future.”
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Lucy didn’t feel bulletproof, she didn’t have any of her clothes or products. She had flaws in appearance and the two people in front of her brought that into contrast.
They both had that ‘too perfect’ look, Lucy couldn’t tell if she was jealous or unnerved, they reminded her of the beautiful man who had gone after her mother. She would have to ask Mathew what they looked like under his Sight.
There were two seats in front of Mrs Torres,Lucy and Louise took them, the others standing behind. Mrs Torres extended a hand, Lucy took it first.
“Marion Torres”
“Lucy Ellingson, Law and War” She nodded towards her Familiar “and my familiar Grandfather”
“Verona Hayward, Nascent Sorceress, My familiar Juliet”
“Mathew Moss, Host and Heartless”
“Louse Bayer”
The man behind Torres didn’t say a word.
In the meantime she took one of Guilhermes' lessons to heart, adjusting her posture to indicate it was time for Mrs Torres to speak.
“Mr Abanathey,” Mrs Torres said “has informed me that you are mages, not off this world.”
“We don’t know enough to say” Lucy said “There are multiple possibilities, but that’s they leading theory. And we use the term practitioner, ‘mage’ has specific connotation we’re from”
“The National Mage Investigative Service as represented by Mr Abenathey here has recommended that you are kept here, at Osthorne Academy as we have resources to monitor and look after Mages who fall outside the average, like yourself.”
Mages had their own separate government, Lucy wasn’t sure how she felt about that, especially when, as far as she was aware, there wasn’t infrastructure in place to handle interactions with the Innocent. She filed away for later.
“I’m happy to say that Osthorne Academy is happy to welcome you” Torres said in a practiced voice. “We are a highly respected institution as both a school that has been training for nearly 90 years and more recently a hub for research on the cutting edge of magic, pioneered by one of our very own students”
“Thank you” Louise said.
“We were told you are able to provide your own accommodation”
“We need your permission” Verona said
“Will it cause any problems?”
“It shouldn’t”
“Then you have it, one of our teachers asked to be present when it takes place.”
“No problem”
Abernathy spoke
“As communicated, you will be allowing the staff here to research your abilities”
“That might not be the best phrasing,” Lucy said. It seemed he didn’t fully grasp how the practice worked. “The practice is more complicated, but we will allow people to research how we perform magic.”
“Yes, yes” he said, dismissively.
“Additionally I was told you cannot Lie?” Mrs Torres asked
We can, but not without steep consequences, except Louise who remains Innocent.
“Ahh, and that’s common of all mages er, practitioners, where you are from?”
“Yes”
“Well, Lucille, I’m excited to get to know you better, would you like a tour?”
“Before we do, could we tie a quick bow on all this?“ Lucy asked “Clarify a few things”
“Of course”
“Fantastic, then to be clear about what is expected here, you and those that fall under your jurisdiction, as the hosting party agree to allow us to stay here for an indefinite basis, until such as time as we can return home, extending board, space for the creation of a liminal realm with freedoms to practice for the duration, excusing exceptional circumstance such as the closure of the school. In return we allow you research into the practice,what you describe as magic ,to the degree that it doesn't cause us significant detriment…”
Mrs Torres Eyebrows’s Furrowed
“With the information being communicated exclusively to the people on this property and The National Mage Investigative Service. With termination of these responsibilities ending when we are able to return home, laying no claim over us or our possessions, our self or our souls. Additionally you as the hosting party do not take responsibility for our safety In both the Karmic and legal understandings of the word, except from those who fall under your jurisdiction or through negligence…”
Abernathy sighed
“Nor do you take responsibility for our actions , again in both the Karmic and legal understandings, except actions you specifically request of us or through which our hands are forced through scenarios caused by your action or negligence. We as the Guest party are too avoid, avoid causing permanent damage, to property or people excluding request or exceptional circumstance and to not make extended claim over the property, the school, or the people and others housed within it”
“Finally, in lieu of a forswearing on failure to uphold, or differing interpretations of the agreement, mediation must come from an unbiased third part, as much as that could be said to exist.”
“Mr Abernathy warned me you lot where… particular.”
“It’s pretty boilerplate with some minor alterations, I’m happy with a verbal agreement, but I can put it in writing if you want.”
“It seems … fine”
“So Sworn?” Lucy asked
“Yes” Mrs Torres said
“Then the terms are accepted, this oath is bound and binding”
“Now, if you don’t mind, It has been a very exhausting week”
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“I need to ask,” Verona said “Is this a stable realm?”
“Stable Realm?” Rahul asked
“Yeah, mixing realm effects can get funky quick.”
“Funky is a word for it,” Lucy commented.
“Point is, if the borders of this place or the rules of this place are in flux while i'm creating a space, things start folding, it could collapse both realms.”
“I mean,I don’t know if it helps but ,this is a spatial expansion with a stone on water technique, it's been like this for years“
“Good enough for me.” Verona said
“Ronnie” Lucy warned
“And this is going to create a house?” Rahul asked
“Not exactly” Verona said, taking out a pen, she uncapped it to reveal a key embedded in it and walked up to the post. “The house already exists, but it exists in a liminal realm, I defined as my demesne”
“And liminal realms are different from stable realms?”
“No, A liminal realm can be stable, but this one won’t be until I lock it down” Verona Inserted the key into a crack in the wood. “I’m using City magic to create a space for the house to exist in”
“How is City magic different from normal magic?” Rahul asked, excited.
“It’s an offshoot of regular shamanism, the spirits of places -Loci- are different from regular spirits, more defined, both by space and the people that live within it, makes them operate by slightly different rules.”
Rahul bumped Ivy’s shoulder, Louise’s Eyes had started bleeding.
Verona Pulled on the key, using it as a lever and the path they were on split, like a second one had been hidden underneath, like the hand of a clock and the House on Half street began to appear, like a two dimensional image turning from its side to face them, a slice of reality.
Then it stopped, then started again, then stopped.
Mathew turned to look at Verona.
She was tugging at the key with both hands, moving it in fits and starts
“Everything okay?” Rahul asked
“Yeah, yeah” Verona said, through gritted teeth “Just heavier than a street sign”
Juliet walked over to the other side of the post and rammed her shoulder into it. It seemed to do the trick as the street kept expanding, moving the two cottages on either side apart, like a book unfolding, until a small one way street leading up to a ramshackle three story house was visible.
“Ronnie, you’ve really got to get fitter.”
Verona, too tired to talk, signed a yapping hand at Lucy.
Then she looked at Rahul and gestured for him to head towards the house.
Rahul was speechless.
They took off towards the house, Verona snapping her fingers to open the door.
“Lucy, you already have guest rights,” Verona said “Mathew, I invite you to shelter in my demesne for as long as you need, Practice at your leisure.”
Mathew nodded his head “Your hospitality is recognized and appreciated.”
“Couple of things, the alchemy lab in the back can be delicate, maybe don’t go back there, and if you can’t get hot water, call me and I'll go kick the geyser.”
“This is… wow” Rahul said
“How are you surprised by this?” Ivy asked “It’s just magic”
“Yeah but this… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Cool, right?” Verona said grinning.
“Yeah” Rahul said grinning back.
Verona led them into the living room filled with bookshelves and a couple of chairs, recliners and couches.
“Tea, Coffee?”
Lucy nodded
“Coffee” Mathew said
“Same” from Louise
Rahul and Ivy had Coffee, Tea for Webb and Torres, Verona and Juliet went into the back.
Mathew collapsed onto a couch, Lousie sat down, next to him, eyes still bleeding.
“Oh dear” Torres said seeing Louise
“Eyes?” Louse asked, turning to him.
“Yep” Mathew said
“It’s nothing to worry about” Louise said to the others “won't even stain”
“What causes it?” Mrs Webb asked.
“I saw something I wasn’t prepared to, It shattered my Innocence, now when I see something that does, it reopens those old wounds”
“Innocence?”
“Protections from the True nature of the world” Lucy said “for those unaware,who we call the Innocent”
“Good word” Ivy said
“We have complicated feelings about it” Lucy said “The Institution, not the word.”
“How so?”
“It’s artificial, the result of millenia old agreements, that have, while saving countless human lives, have disenfranchised countless Others”
“Others” Torres said “You’ve mentioned the term before”
“Non-humans” Lucy said “It's a catch-all for everything from the spirit of green in a bottle cap, to gods. Grandfather and Juliet are Other, Grandfather’s a dog of war, and Juliet is a fetch.”
“We have the benefit of a Human appearance, we don’t shatter innocence by being seen” Matthew added “Most Others are less fortunate.”
Lucy nodded.
“We?” Ivy asked.
“To a much lesser degree, all practitioners are considered slightly Other. It's a part of becoming a practitioner, but I used to be fully Other, only recently has the universe considered me human again.”
Ivy went to ask something but was beaten by Rahul
“These books,” He said, gesturing “Are they magic?”
“Kinda!” Verona called from the back room “Most were made magically!”
“They’re books that were never written” Juliet said, She leaned conspiratorially “Thing is most books aren't written because they aren’t very good.”
“I keep the magical stuff and books on practice in the glass case!”
Lucy pointed to it, it was near the back, by the counter.
“And my personal library’s upstairs” Verona said coming out of the back with a tray, she distributed mismatched cups.
“You said you become a practitioner,” Ivy said slowly.
“Yes?” Mathew said.
“Aren't you born a practitioner?”
“No, is that how it works here?” Verona said.
“I thought it was the same for you.”
“No, we perform a ritual called Awakening” Lucy said “Basically we sign on to a millenia old contract, giving up our ability to lie freely and in return our words and actions hold weight and we can see the world as it truly is.”
“How does it work here?” Verona asked
“Some people just have it.” Mr Torres said.
Verona frowned.
“Regretting not taking the Driscoll deal?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah”
“So you’re just… normal?” Mrs Webb asked
“We were, as much as anyone is ‘normal’” Lucy said, levelly.
“Is everyone from your world magic?” Ivy asked.
“No, most people are unaware of magic, it's a side effect of the contract I mentioned, even if it wasn’t you give up alot of protections and take on a lot of risk. It's not for everyone, Louise isn’t, for example.”
Louise gave a mock wave.
“I have a thousand questions,” Rahul said, grinning.
“Same here,” Verona said.
“I think they will have to wait” Louise said “We are all quite tired”
“Of course” Mrs Torres said, standing “I’m sorry we’ve kept you so long”
The visitors stood and filed their way out, one by one.
“Thank you” Ivy said, before closing the door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verona stood in the doorway waiting for Mr Chaudhary to notice her. He was excited and she liked that, it reminded her of how she felt about the practice. Too many people didn’t follow their passions. That wasn’t fair, McCauligh, Matthew and even Lucy , hadn’t been given the option, or doing so would have been selfish.
Still it resonated with her the way Mr Chaudhary spoke. Honestly it reminded her of Mr Belanger, despite his many flaws, he had had a real passion for both the practice and teaching.
Osthorne was very different front the Blue Heron, but she thought a lot of that had to with the fact that the paradigm these mages lived under was totally different from home. Much less expectation, much less politics.
She would have though about it more, if Mr Chaudhary hadn’t noticed her.
“Sorry, were you looking for something?” He asked.
Everyone had turned to look at her.
“I was hoping” she said slowly “to audit a class, get an idea of how magic works”
That seemed to enthuse him even more “Of course, take a seat”
Verona took a seat at the back of the classroom. It reminded her of the lab at her school, before she started long distance studying.
Verona pulled out her newest notebook as Mr Chaudhary launched back into his class, and she quickly found herself frustrated. The class was, as far as she could tell, about controlling the temperature of objects, which she could understand, but the methods he was trying to explain went over her head. He spoke about ‘touching’ the heat in an object and manipulating it with some mental image. She hated it, it felt like being back in school, always behind, Worse it frustrated her that she couldn’t ‘get’ how it worked, it just happened, she was being told the how, but not the why.
She thought back to the basic principles of the practice. Pattern, Price and Principle, when learning a new practice you needed to ask those questions. Applying them here, Was there a pattern to these mental exercises and how they related to what magic was being cast? What was footing the bill for their magic? Did it come from their Selves or was it external? How could they indicate payment without action?
By the time the lecture was winding down, Verona’s notebook was filled with questions but still empty of answers. Mr Chaudhary, started handing out beakers of water.
“Okay, so this is a pretty basic example as water is a lot more willing to move to your suggestions, but it's a great starting point for learning the technique.”
Verona got up and started towards one of the groups, opening her eyes to the sight. The world was cast anew, a thin clear plastic film and cobweb, covering chunks of meat. The people looked much the same, her sight wasn’t calibrated to analysis of other people's selfs.
She watched as one student took his beaker, filled with blood to her sight. He moved his hand to touch it, cobwebs of connection spidering out before he made contact. Then something moved across them, a glint of light flowing like a wave across the cobwebs until it entered the beaker and water,still blood red to her, began to condense across the beaker.
She would need to study that more, if she could set up a diagram and catch whatever was flowing though the Connection, she might be able to store and study it. Break down the “currency” and she could figure out who was paying and who was accepting payment.
She looked up at the students to see them staring at her.
She gave a nervous grin. Looking into there confused eyes “Something wrong?”
One of the students pointed to her eye.
“You can see that, can you?” Verona said, Her sight made her eyes purple, with spheres that caught the light at odd angles.
She blinked hard, canceling out her sight.
“Why did you do that to your eyes?” One of the students asked.
“Oh it's my …” She said, looking at Mr Chaudhary, apologetically. But he seemed intrigued.
“I don’t mean to interrupt”
It took him a second to snap out of it. “No, no, please, its interesting” He said
“Uhh it's my sight” Verona said, to blank faces. She hated being the center of attention. “The Sight is, uhh It’s one part magic sense, one part diagnostic tool, one part augury. It’s a tool every practitioner has, it lets us see the unseen, magic and the connections between things, and normally more . It varies from practitioner to practitioner.”
“Alright kids, let's focus,” Mr Chaudhary said, trying to rangel the kids back to their assigned tasks.
Verona retreated to the back of the class, to watch. Only to find Ms Gamble peeking in on the class. She waved to Verona, who slinked over.
“Hey” Ms Gamble said “I’d been meaning to talk to you.”
“Oh” Verona said “What about.”
“Magic,” Ms Gamble said.
“Oh Cool” Verona said, smiling. This was an opportunity to show she knew her stuff. “What do you want to know?”
Ms Gamble started walking down the hallway and Verona followed.
“So you mentioned you become magic by signing onto some contract, how does that work?“
She thought that would be coming.
“Well that’s the simple version” Verona said. “Magic isn’t some energy or force, it's like a collection of agreements and traditions, when we Awaken, where agreeing to both keep and be kept by them.”
“Yeah, but what do you do? How does it work?”
This was promising.
“Well, it's interesting and there isn’t a singular way to do it. The core of it is an invitation and welcome, most do it by making symbolic offerings to Others and identifying themselves to the spirits, but me and Lucy along with our friend Avery, we made interacted with a very real group of Others, Matthew included actually, while my… acquaintance Milly was knighted into it, but even the ritual in Essentials can be and often is modified”
“Essentials?”
Hook, line and sinker.
“It's a tome for novice practitioners, it contains the basics for learning the practice.”
“Mmm” Ivy said.
“You want it.” Verona said
“Using magic?”
“No, It’s just obvious, even Matthew could tell and he doesn't have eyes”
“Look-”
“I’m not saying no” Verona said
“You're not?”
“I’m not, but I want you to speak to Matthew and Lucy first”
“Can I ask why?”
“I just think you should make an informed decision is all” Verona said, “Now if you don’t mind” She jerked her thumb towards the class
Ivy nodded and Verona turned to head back, hiding her grin.
She was going to complete a set.
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Marrion Torres wasn’t sure how she felt about the practitioners at her school. To be honest she wasn’t sure about how she felt about practitioners.
It shouldn’t have bothered her. She’d long been a proponent of treating those without magic as equals. But she had never had to grapple with what that meant. Mages had to be found and taught how to use their powers, educated, not just about magic, but in having a healthy respect for the power they were born with.
The way the practitioners acted, it wasn’t with disrespect, but it unnerved her. They didn’t see magic as something to respect, for being magic, but as something to respect for what it could do.
Their talk of awakening and the seal, of taking something like magic and forcing it to obey the rules of man, seemed fundamentally wrong. When they criticized it they spoke of how to make the rules better, not remove them.
Was that bias? She had always experienced magic as something primal, raw and true to be harnessed, full of possibility. Not some stuffy contract full of rules and limitations. Maybe that shaped how they viewed it.
Mrs Webb was aghast at the very idea. She had an old view of magic, she saw it as a gift, and saw the practitioners as thieves taking something they shouldn’t have.
Rising above their station.
Marrion felt bad for even having the thought, they hadn’t done anything to make problems for her.
“It’s getting away!” She heard Verona or Juliet call out, sprinting past her window, down the corridor. The other following.
Or they were waiting until she wasn’t expecting it.
Marion stood and stepped through reality, finding the girls had already put a considerable distance between them, and had already turned a corner. She could hear yelling from the Haywards, then the shattering of glass and a “wuff” of displaced air. She tried to step far to follow but hit the metaphorical equivalent of a wall. Something rebuffing her.
She suppressed some amount of frustration and started to follow. Letting teachers who were checking on the commotion it was okay to go back to class.
She turned the corner to see a part of the hallway covered in hundreds of chalk circles, covering the wall floor and ceiling, all stemming from a broken glass jar, the ones further away spiraling and terminating prematurely. The Haywards panting , one with her hands on her knees. Ellingson stood at the other end of the hallway, Grandfather beside her and had drawn a chalk line across the floor parallel to the blast zone.
All of them were staring at a spot on the floor.
“No …” Hayward said, pausing to take in a lungful of air “...Escape”
“What” Marrion said, suppressing her frustration, “Do you think you are doing?”
“Chasing…” Another Pause, Before the Other Hayward pointed to a circle “That thing.”
Marrion turned to look at the circle, sitting inside it was the goddamned graffiti, the one that had made poor Samantha’s life awful.
“What is that doing here?”
“Tried…”
“It tried to escape.” Lucy said, then turning to Verona “You have got to get fitter.”
“Escape?”
“Ronnie wanted to bind it, get it out of here” Lucy said.
“It tried to run away when it figured out what we were doing.” The other Hayward, Juliet, said.
“It could move?”
“Apparently.” Lucy said
“Let me.” Verona said. Pulling a book out of her bag, she opened to a page with elaborate embellishment on its borders and walked over the graffiti. It tried to move away, not flowing, but writing along the floor, the same repeating message, “Samantha is a Slut”, while the tail end faded. It couldn’t move past the edge of the chalk circle.
Verona pressed the page against it and muttered something under her breath, when she pulled it away, it had moved from the floor to the page. Hayward closed the book, a self satisfied grin on her face.
“How cool was that?” She asked Lucy, who gave her a small smile.
“How cool was what?”
“Distilled chalk circles.” Verona said, indicating the shattered glass on the floor, then to the hallway.
“And you can clean it up?” Marion asked.
The smile fell off Verona's face for a second, before reappearing. “Actually, I have an Idea.”
Verona reached into her bag and pulled out two stopped vials and a strange thermos. She read the labels, put one back and withdrew a third. She started fiddling with the thermos.
“Can I ask what you are doing young lady?”
“I’ve got a vial of vacuum and a vial of anti-dust” She said. Making marks on a circle on the floor. “I’m thinking if I can pull the chalk into the air the anti-dust will get rid of it.“
She pulled a tube with a needle on one side from her back and connected it to the thermos, then plunged the needle through the chalk stopper of one of the vials. She placed it into the chalk circle she had decorated and backed away.
Lucy and the Others did as well and Marion joined them.
“aperta sesamae” Verona said, confident. The words lit up as a part of a spider web diagram on the lid of the thermos, which spanned and popped off the thermos. The chalk slid across the surfaces towards the thermos, then stopped as it reached the circle Verona had drawn. Suddenly A burst of clean air flowed over the corridor, flushing Torres, system. Like a breath mint had been rubbed over her sinuses.
The chalk circles had been consolidated into one large, solid one. She turned to Verona who was frowning, then once again her face lit up and she opened her mouth to speak. Before she could Lucy interjected.
“Do you have a mop?”
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Ivy found Lucy, on the hill between Rahul’s cottage and the school. She and Grandfather were sitting there while she strummed a guitar, she had changed outfits, but she was still wearing the fur lined military jacket. She stopped playing as Ivy approached.
“You want to become a practitioner.” Lucy said as Ivy approached.
Ivy had been hopping to ease into the subject.
“Getting right into it.” Ivy said.
“I’ll tell you what I was told when I went to Awaken.” Lucy said. “Don’t.”
Ivy didn’t like being told what to do by a child, a child who had magic no less.
“Can I ask why?”
“There’s so many reasons, I can’t think of them all.” Lucy said. “To start with, Awakening, the way you would have to do it, perpetuates harm, it reinforces a system of oppression.”
“How?”
“It… It has to do with the origins of the ritual, what it means, what it represents.For example, It’s like becoming a cop, you're signing up for and reinforcing systems that discriminate and punish people.”
“Aren’t you one?” Ivy asked.
“Yeah, but I was appointed by my community for my community, And even there, it was because if they didn’t worse people would come in from outside and take up the position.”
“So, it's okay for you to have magic, but not others?” Ivy said
“You’re not listening to me”
Time to play at the heartstrings Ivy thought, a mix of shame and righteousness
“Look, you don’t get it” Ivy said “You don’t have to live as the odd one out, you don’t have to live knowing about a world where everyone around you is special, magic, and i'm not!”
She was getting worked up now.
“You don’t have to live in a world Where you’re the only one who carries a bag, because you can’t pull what you need out of nowhere, where your alway late because you can’t fucking teleport, where teenagers look at you with pity, where you feel ugly because you can’t make yourself look however you want” She thought of Tabitha “where anyone around you could turn you the mist with a thought.I have to live, knowing I’m less than them, but you get to sit there with magic and say I don’t deserve it!.”
She stopped speaking, her heart was racing.
Silence lingered. 5 seconds, 10.
Lucy finally moved, pulling her fox mask from her bag.
“I chose the fox, because it had fangs, it was important to me that it had fangs.” She said. “When I was first told about magic, I saw it as a way to be powerful, in a world where I felt very weak.”
“Yeah” Ivy said, maybe she was getting it.
“Ivy, I am a child soldier.” Lucy said,her hand tracing the dog tag at her neck. n“Awakening into this world, I found power, yes, but at a cost. I had to live with constant danger, constant paranoia, constant loss. I learned to fight because Avery was too kind, and Verona to hurt. And maybe it’s unfair to say no to you, after all, I did get what I wanted, I got to fight injustice, I got to make a difference.”
“I think,” a voice said. When Ivy looked, Grandfather had taken the form of a man, his face unreadable. “That some of that is our fault”
Silence lingered again.
“Thank you for telling me about how you feel,” Lucy said. “I’ve been thinking alot about the ethics of magic like this, this helps me get my head around it some.”
Ivy didn’t know how to respond to that,her heart was still beating fast. She’d never said it outloud before, never put it to words. “You’re welcome,” She said.
“I won’t try to stop you.” Lucy said, standing “But I think it will hurt you more than it will help. To Awaken is to become part of an unkind world.”
With that she started to walk down the hill towards the House on Half street. Leaving Ivy to think.
She spent more time thinking about what she had said than what Lucy had. She felt lesser, she wouldn’t have been able to admit that to herself six months ago. Now she could, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. She stewed on what Lucy said, really thought about it. Then she thought about how Thabitha had magiced her away when she didn’t want to speak to her, about how Tabitha had fucked with her head, about the fear that had rushed through her when Tabitha had come near her, when last they spoke.
She already lived in an unkind world, with this she might have control.
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Date: 2024-04-26 11:46 pm (UTC)Great summary of all the problems with Practice.