Rise of the Night Witch

Chapter 1.8 - Focus Once More

Recap: Last chapter, Darcy healed Marissa's wound and offered to talk to her in the Waystone Tavern where she could test her skills in magic.

Say what you want about Darcy, but Waystone Tavern was a nice pick.

See, this Tavern wasn't like other restaurants in Summer Hill. Instead of Greek, Italian, Chinese, or Korean foods, it only served dishes you found in fantasy novels. From pumpkin juice to butterbeer to the meals Bilbo shared with the dwarves, it had everything.

The late-August humidity still hung in the restaurant and plastered my hair to my scalp. We ordered Night Watch burgers; Game of Thrones-themed triple-decker burgers with bread as black as castle walls. Darcy also ordered some ale; you know, the sort of stuff I'm not old enough to drink yet.

A white, invisible cloud of glamour followed Darcy's pixie. It worked under the principle of least resistance. Anyone caught by its spell wouldn't hear us talk about magic. Instead, they'd hear what they expected us to chat about, like boys or parties.

"What if we want to send messages?" I asked.

"You'll get a burner phone during your Initiation," Darcy said. "Until then, do it like Edward Snowden and use Signal. I also recommend getting better clothes because your current wardrobe looks terrible."

"My Practitioner Garments are at home."

"I'm talking about your casual fashion senses. It's still summer. How do you survive in that sweater?" She put out a fifty-dollar bill and handed it to me. "Buy something pretty, something that doesn't make you sweat. If you're worried about being too skinny, buy something that doesn't show your shoulders and with horizontal stripes to make you look broader. Browse Pinterest if you need inspiration."

I moaned quietly into my burger. "Teen drama's over for me."

"Do you think the adult world will be any better?"

I groaned.

"How 'bout we talk about the Academy?" Darcy asked. "Any experience with it?"

"Tried applying back in NYC. Someone told me I needed a familiar to be accepted as a practitioner, but if I did a levitation spell right, that could work, too. Unfortunately, I got an F everywhere and they thought my talent went barely beyond mundane."

"Well, now you can try again."

"Sure, but I found a new place in the meantime. Do I have to quit college?"

Darcy gave me a curious look.

"I-I made friends here. Your brother and that girl you saw on the bench. I'd hate to leave. And Dad would probably rather have it that I finish this."

"Well," she said, "we have a small population. A few thousand practitioners scattered all across America share one school in Massachusetts and some even live among mundanes. Since not everyone can come, we've got astral courses. You get a crystal and you can make a projection of your soul that gets sent around and allows you to communicate face-to-face across the country."

"Like magic Zoom?"

"Like magic Zoom. What you want is doable, but do you really want the double pressure?"

"Can't I quit one life when the other takes over?"

"You need to commit yourself. The job market is competitive. I have three options: Find someone who teaches me to become a certified sorcerer, marry a person who is one, or be stuck under the Veil where my talents are useless. And let's not even begin with the social part. You'll also need to do that twice. Simon told me you've got a dance for Halloween scheduled. Got a date already?"

Yikes. I mostly avoided small talk, so, it took me a while to find a snappy quip. "I live by the motto of Kim Possible," I said. "Saving the world easy, dating hard."

Darcy laughed. "But if you could go with someone, who would it be?"

"As if I'd tell you after knowing you for a few hours," I said. "Supernatural jetlag included!"

"C'mon, I'll also tell you my type."

"Whatever," I said. "If it's a boy, someone sweet and innocent. If it's a girl, someone tough and assertive. You?"

"Hm. The answer might be cliché, but I've always been drawn to the dark and mysterious type."

"Like with Zane?"

She frowned. "I'm not into monsters. Just asking 'cause I assumed you had some type of crush if you wanted to do the double life thing."

"You mean the monsters aren't reason enough? Someone needs to slay them. Unless you've got Hunters for that."

Darcy shook her head. "They're spread too thin. There are thousands of monsters for every Sam or Dean Winchester we have. If you are a buffalo calf without a herd, your only option is to grow horns."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry. I like comparing Otherworlders to leopards and us to buffaloes. These things are ambush predators. They leave their Domains or their hidden societies when the prey is weak. When it's a calf. When you and Simon were alone, the Domain opened and you got in. But the portal immediately closed after I came with the Hunters and it was only luck that allowed us to arrive in time."

"So, you're saying that getting rid of those spookies in the basement will be hard?"

"Yes. Until we found out who designed the Domain, we can't dive into it by ourselves. You can either join us or you can learn enough magic until you're strong enough that they're too scared to come out. The more life energy you've got, the better you get at warding and we can measure your skill."

"Why not?"

Darcy took out a cell phone; only it wasn't a regular one. The difference to a regular phone was that of magic to the mundane, of a diamond to a rock, or of classical literature to fanfiction (unless I write it). Crystal encased the phone's mirror-smooth touch screen while pentagram-shaped buttons waited to be pushed at its bottom.

"How about we do something fun?" Darcy asked. "My Magia Phone has an app to measure your life energy in equivalents to scientific units. Think of it as a supernatural calorie counter app. Can you already lift your backpack?"

"With my hands? Yes. With magic? Maybe."

Darcy pushed the phone closer. "We can change that. Other apprentices your age had their familiars longer. You'll start with a disadvantage compared to other students this semester. You need an inner fire to make up for it. Think of someone you want to impress or someone whose face you want to punch and channel those feelings into power. Show me the best levitation spell you've got!"

My arm still ached from the dog bite as I balled a fist around the necklace. Siris materialized before the stool's leg, his chest proud like a lion's, and directed the aether towards the bag.

"Up!" I said.

It was a simple power exercise. While aether had no resting mass, it had its equivalent to kinetic energy and could be used to move objects. The challenge in vertical levitation was me versus gravity.

A fountain of my life energy shot up and lifted the bag as I closed my eyes and counted the seconds for better focus. One, two, three, four.

The power I drew from the environment fogged my mind. The fountain dissipated and the backpack dropped onto the table's edge, forcing me to catch it before it fell farther down onto the floor.

I looked at Darcy's phone, eager to await my results.