The Lost Witch

Magic Lessons

"Ugh, that force field really took it out of me." Eda groans, shuffling through the living room.

"Uh-oh moving a little slow. Age finally catching up to you?" The pet laughs.

"This is perfect!" Luz whispers to me as we follow behind Eda, "Since we'll be stuck in the house all night, Eda won't have any excuse to not teach us a spell!"

"That's a good point, but Eda looks pretty tired. Why can't we listen to the dog lecture us about demon realm zoology?" I say.

"Yeah Luz!" The pet encourages, "Your brother is right for once! Let's finish our lesson. I can even let you scratch a demon's tummy. Me!"

"What's you say about me only now being right?"

"Oh, uh, sorry King." Luz says gulitily, brushing over my comment, "We can do that another time. Come on Hunter! Don't you want to do magic?"

Before I can respond she walks over to Eda who had magically changed into pajamas and was currently laying on the couch.

"Hey Eda, have I told you about how rad your fang looks today?" She asks, leaning over.

"Whatever it is, no." Eda groans.

"Uh, and your hair is like...girl."

"Be like your brother who isn't bothering me. I'm not teaching you magic. I'm sleepy." Eda pulls a blanket up over her, "I'm a sleepy little owl."

"Please, Eda, please. How can Hunter and I earn out staffs if we don't know any spells?"

"Leave me out of this. I'm all good with hanging out with the pet." I say, currently scratching his belly.

"No magic. Only sleep." Eda refuses, pulling the blanket over her head.

Really wanting to have lessons tonight, Luz grabs the sparkle pen and clicks it, making Eda's head poke up.

"Sparkle thing." She gasps.

She looks behind her and sees Luz holding it. Eda tosses the blanket to the side and perches on the edge of the sofa.

"Oh this?" Luz asks coyly, clicking it a few more times.

Eda reaches out to grab it but Luz swipes it away, making Eda fall on her face. She looks fine so I'm guilt free as I snicker.

"Teach me a spell, and I'll give you your sparkle thing." Luz offers.

"I respect your cunning, but I also hate you for it." Eda groans.

Thunder booms outside as Luz and I sit on the floor in front of Eda as she groggily grabs her staff.

"If you want a witches staff like mine," She begins, "Don't make me repeat myself. Witch's staffs have power embeded in them."

"So someone without magic, like a human or magicless witch, could do it with one?" I ask curiously.

"Well I've never heard of a magicless witch or a human with a staff, so who knows. Anyways, before one is earned, every witch needs to know how to do spells on their own. Now," She yawns, tossing her staff to the side, "tonight I will show you how to create...light."

Eda draws circle in the air which turns into a ball of light. It floats down in front of Luz and I before fading away. Luz and I are both entranced.

"Yawn!" the pet calls out, annoyed, "Who needs another boring spell lesson when you could be learning all the fun ways a demon could kill you!" He says, pulling out a drawing of a demon with massive teeth, "Look how teethy. Bite, bite."

"After this, pet." I say, brushing him off, "This is actually really cool."

"Now," Eda continues, "humans think magic is made of thin air, but that's stupid. Everything comes from something. Let me ask you, kids. Which one of you can tell me where you think magic comes from."

"Uh, the heart?" Luz offers.

"Huh. Actually you're right."

Luz gasps with joy and blushes, making me smile.

I love it when she's happy like this.

"No, really," Eda pulls out a diagram of a heart with a massive green sack attached to it, "It comes from a sack of magic bile attached to a witches heart! So, Hunter, with your question earlier, for a witch to be magicless, it could be possible if they were born with a mutation so they were born without a bile sack, or an empty bile sack maybe."

"Hey, uh, could I keep that?" Luz asks.

"No. Anyways, everything depends on the spell circle," Eda explains, drawing a large spell circle in the air, "The bigger the circle, the more powerful the spell."

The spell forms into a massive ball of light with a flash, before fading away quickly.

"But how can we do magic without bile sacks?" I question.

"You know, I'm actually not sure."

"What?" Luz and I gasp in dismay.

"I know witches did magic differently in the past, but I never bothered to figure out how."

Eda snorts and starts laughing but Luz just glares at her, unamused.

"Hey, don't worry short stuff. You and your brother can figure something out. Now," Eda loudly pops her back, "I need to lie down."

"That's it? Wait!" Luz calls out, stopping Eda, "I need to see you do the circle thingy again. I'll record it on my phone this time."

Eda sighs and walks back over as Luz pulls out her phone and starts recording.

"Smile! You're on camera. One more spell won't kill you."

"Fine. Now you see the..." Eda yawns as she draws a shaky spell circle, "the spell circle is really key because...ooh boy."

The spell circle fades away as Eda falls to the ground.

"Huh. I guess one more spell did kill Eda." I shrug.

Luz yelps and rushes over to her, rolling her over so she's face up.

"Oh my god. My obsession with spells knocked out Eda. I'm a monster."

"Bap!" the pet says happily as he slaps Eda in the face, "Yep. She's out. Bap! Heh. Just making sure."

"We should get help right?"

Luz starts to get up to go out the door but I grab her arm and pull her back down.

"Luz, did you seriously forget the boiling rains?"

"No, let her try. It'll be funny." Hooty jeers.

The pet, thankfully, goes over to the door and slams it shut before Hooty can continue.

"But what if Eda's dead?" Luz asks me, concerned.

"Mmmm....shiny thing. Big nest." Eda mumbles in her sleep, aleviating any concern.

"Remember when her head got cut off last week?" the pet reminds, "That woman can survive anything. She's probably just tired from staying up all night chasing shrews and voles."

"Well we can't just leave her here!"

Luz and the pet turn and look at me.

Of course.