ALL NOVEL 13. Beginners Luck
I found myself staring at the blonde, and I wasn't sure what made me more uneasy. The disappearance of the rest of our friends and favourite teacher, or the way Marissa looked so excited about the situation.
"How?" I asked anxiously. "There's just two of us... How are we supposed to save everyone?"
She rolled her eyes, "Magic? We're witches Cass. So let's get started!"
For all her enthusiasm she didn't actually move or do anything else. She was just sort of watching me, as if she was waiting for me to respond or react.
After another awkward minute or so I finally asked "How? What do we do?"
Marissa frowned, "Right. Um. Yeah, they're all missing right? So we need to find them. We need to do some scrying!"
"Ok. We can do that in the library," I said. At least this was something I was familiar with, considering I watched Paige trying to do that yesterday.
Me and Marissa forgot about lunch completely as we both left the cafeteria and headed into the library. Ms. Sutton said hello as I led my last remaining friend past her, and I waved back.
On the way to the study cubicles I went by the maps and grabbed a couple, then the two of us ended up sitting together in a cubicle in the far corner at the back of the library.
I spread the map of town out on the desk, then I took Kaylee's bracelet off my wrist. I held it out for Marissa and said, "This is Kaylee's, so it should be connected to her right? You can use it to scry for her? I just hope you have better luck than Paige did yesterday."
"Me?" Marissa raised her eyebrows. She shook her head, "Not me. Last time I tried to do a divination spell I almost burned down my bedroom. This one's yours Cass."
My stomach lurched as I stared at her. I lowered my voice and protested "Marissa I don't know any spells! I haven't learned any yet. I can't do this!"
The blonde frowned, "Oh right. Your study date with Kaylee isn't till Friday huh."
I felt my cheeks go bright red as I sputtered, "It's not a date..."
"Well it should be!" Marissa stated as she rolled her eyes. "You like her, she likes you. Stop wasting time and go for it!"
At that point I thought my cheeks might burst into flame, and I was too flustered to even respond.
The young witch looked at me and sighed, "Cass everybody knows you've had a crush on Kaylee right from day one. And it's just as obvious to the rest of us that she's been crushing on you since then too."
"She is?!" I almost squeaked.
"Yes!" Marissa replied firmly. "Now c'mon! I'm gonna teach you how scrying works, and you're gonna find your girlfriend!"
It took another couple minutes before I'd calmed down enough that I could actually start learning something. My friend's excitement and enthusiasm was back as she rushed through the explanation on how the spell worked, then rushed through it again because I didn't get half of it the first time around.
The third time I got her to slow down and we sort of did it step by step, and I finally began to grasp what she was saying. I started to see how the Word, the Will, and the Way came together in the form of a scrying spell. And at last I was ready to give it a try.
"So put your left hand on the map," Marissa instructed. "Now hold the bracelet by one end, up above the map. Think of it like a pendulum, right? So the other end can swing around? Now to begin, you close your eyes and think of Kaylee. Feel the bracelet between your thumb and fingers, use that physical object as the anchor while you're visualizing her in your mind."
She paused and I nodded, "Ok. Then what?"
"Spit your focus, feel the map under your left hand, feel the bracelet in your right hand, feel your emotions when you think of Kaylee, and push everything else out of your head. When there's nothing left but those three things, then you can start casting the spell like I told you."
I nodded again, "Ok..."
"This is the hard part," she added. "You're bringing the Word, the Will, and the Way together and using those three things to tie together the other three things. And...huh. There's a lot of threes involved in this stuff, now that I think of it? Anyways, sorry! Avoid distractions like that one. That was an example of what not to do. Now go!"
I sighed and opened my eyes and looked at her, "How will I know when it works? Will I feel something? I can't see anything with my eyes closed."
Marissa shrugged, "That's probably not going to be an issue for a while? Like I mean, it's probably not going to work right off the bat. An experienced diviner like Brooke could do this in ten or fifteen seconds. Someone like Kaylee would take about a minute, maybe two? If I tried, it'd take a minute then fail spectacularly. A first timer like you, might take three or four tries, and could be up to five minutes. Assuming you can concentrate for that long."
She added, "The important thing is don't give up. Like if you need to stop for a break that's fine. But then you try again, because all our friends are depending on you."
I sighed, like great at least there wasn't a lot riding on my very first attempt at magic.
"Ok," I nodded. "Here I go."
Marissa stayed quiet this time, and I closed my eyes and focused. I concentrated as hard as I could as I thought about Kaylee, and kept myself aware of the map and the bracelet. I had no idea how much time passed as I kept it up, but eventually it felt like I'd reached the point where there were no other thoughts. Then I started the spell.
I began the quiet whispering, and fought to keep my thoughts from wandering. The spell itself was really simple, it basically boiled down to a single word in some ancient language that meant 'locate' along with Kaylee's name. Or in other words I was just whispering "Locate Kaylee, locate Kaylee..." over and over.
That was the Word, my concentration was the Will, and finally I tried to incorporate the Way. There was magic everywhere, just sort of floating around undetected. Normally it flowed around and through everything and everyone, but I tried to capture it as it passed through me. I redirected it, concentrated it, and pushed it out my right hand while pulling it in through my left.
The way Marissa explained it, it was almost like completing an electrical circuit. The magic I pushed out into the bracelet would be drawn into the map, and the connection to Kaylee from the small gold chain and my Will would make the bracelet point to Kaylee's location on the map.
It wasn't easy to stay focused so hard on four or five different things at once, and I felt like my right arm was getting tired from holding my hand up over map. My concentration wavered slightly as the bracelet and my hand started to feel heavy.
My eyes opened, then went wide. There was a faint purple glow around the bracelet, and a matching purple glow flickered around the map. The bracelet wasn't swinging or swaying, it was moving around in little jerking motions as if it was following the flickering that was darting around over the map.
I'd seen magic before, but this wasn't Paige's or Kaylee's or even Miss Hawthorne's. This was my magic, I made it. And instead of distracting me, seeing it sort of focused my thoughts and energy. It was obviously hunting for Kaylee, trying to make the connection.
I whispered the words once more, a little more firmly. At the same time I gave the flow of magic a really big push, like I was trying to force it to happen. And something definitely happened.
There was a bright purple flash, like a six-inch spark leapt from the end of the bracelet into the map. I felt a wave of exhaustion pass through me like I was suddenly drained. And there was the smell of smoke in the air.
"Yes!" Marissa half shouted as she jumped to her feet. She had a wide smile on her face as she punched my shoulder, "Damn straight Cass, that was awesome!"
The bracelet slipped from my fingers and my arm slumped down and hung by my side. I took a few deep breaths and asked, "It worked?"
My companion laughed, "Did it ever! Damn girl, you must really like Kaylee!"
She sat back down and leaned forward to take a closer look at the map, "So I think we can say pretty conclusively that your girlfriend is right here, at the corner of Elm and Beech. And if she's there, I bet we'll find everyone else there too."
I leaned forward and looked where she was pointing. There was a hole about an eighth of an inch across burned through the map, near the south-west corner where Elm Street met Beech Road.
"Wow," I said quietly. "I did that? My magic did that?"
Marissa nodded, "Yep. Pretty impressive too, it only took you about two minutes. Not bad for your first attempt right? Maybe a bit of beginner's luck there, but I think the main thing is you had a really amazing teacher."
I glanced at her then looked back at the map again.
"I'm going to be in trouble for damaging school property," I sighed. "I burned a hole in the map."
She rolled her eyes, "I'd be more worried about the desk if I were you. Plus they won't notice the hole in the map because I'm going to steal it."
My eyes widened, and she pulled the map away to reveal that small hole from the map was also burned clear through the desk.
I found myself just staring at the desk while she folded the map up all wrong, so that our destination remained visible in the middle of the folded up sheet. Then she stuffed it into her bag.
"That's..." I didn't know what to say. "I didn't think a scrying spell would be dangerous?"
Marissa shrugged, "It's not supposed to be. That doesn't happen when Brooke does it? I figure it's because you learned from me, right? If I tried it I'd have burned down the library or something."
I grimaced, then picked up the bracelet and carefully put it back on my wrist for safe keeping.
Then my friend said "Let's head out? It's only about a half hour away on foot, let's go be heroes!"
"What about classes?" I asked. "And shouldn't we go to the police or something? We can't do this alone..."
Marissa rolled her eyes again, "Pfft! What are you going to tell the police? That you're a witch? That someone kidnapped all the other witches in our coven? And that you cast a spell in the school library, and the spell told you our missing friends are in some house downtown?"
She shook her head, "The cops will laugh at you, then they'll hassle you for skipping school. Or they'll call your moms and get them to come get you, and maybe hit you with a fine for wasting the cops' time. Forget it Cass, we have to do this ourselves. Nobody else can help."
I frowned, "Ok but if there's someone out there kidnapping witches, maybe it's a bad idea for you and me to just show up at their front door? Like they might be dangerous."
"Yeah probably," she agreed with a shrug. "If they've managed to capture everyone else including Miss Hawthorne I bet they're super dangerous. But so am I, right? Ass-kicking magic is my speciality! And I'll teach you a few of my tricks on the way there."
"But..." I was uneasy and nervous again. The excitement of my first spell had worn off and now I was faced with the idea of possibly confronting someone dangerous, and the way Marissa was treating the whole thing like a fun adventure left me even more anxious.
She sighed and gave me a serious look, "C'mon Cass. Your girlfriend's been kidnapped. We know where she is. We don't know how long she'll be there. So we should get moving."
"Ok," I finally nodded. I felt like I was in way over my head, but my friend was right. We knew where Kaylee was, we had to go save her.
I got to my feet, and Marissa marched off while I followed behind her. I waved again to Ms. Sutton as we went past her office, she waved back. I felt bad about the damage to the desk, and the fact that Marissa just stole the map. I'd worry about that stuff later though.
From the library we went to my locker so I could get my jacket. Then we stopped at Marissa's locker and she put on a warm black coat. And finally the two of us walked down the hall, past the office, then out the front doors.
Within a couple minutes we were out of the neighbourhood and on one of the main streets, heading south towards the centre of town. On our way to a house where Kaylee was possibly being held prisoner, by someone who could capture witches.
