The Blood of Alchemy

Chapter 15: The Farnard Men

"Don't let it fall!" Rufus Rexford was shouting, as Tharon did his best to steady his hand.

"I can't move it!" Tharon shouted in aggravation. It had been three days of trying now, and the failure was starting to get to him.

Tally was watching, it was her turn next to try and hover the stone from one place to another place on the ground. Tharon and her had been trying at this for a few days now, along with some other beginners magick that Rufus had been showing them. Rufus had already taught them to spark fire with the uttermost of the word 'Cindra", and how to clarify water for drinking without a pot to boil - for this you waved your hand in a simple series of movements above said container of water (palm slightly curved, then sweep left, and then back right in a U pattern, before clenching the fist quickly as the final step) and they had also learned an enchantment to mend a broken bowstring, as if it had been freshly made anew. It turned out that the witch shaman, Senya Alba, had been entirely wrong about Tally - she had demanded to try, and succeeded as quickly as Tharon had.

"Don't struggle with it, you have to ease into it. You should not feel the weight, or why would one not just use their hands?" Rufus asked his explanation, as he often did. Tharon did want to use his hands, and he did not see the point of moving rocks around, when he could be learning real spells.

"I can't, it feels like a boulder." Tharon said, looking to be strained as if he was indeed trying to lift his own size in granite. The small stone was trembling as it hovered in spot, two feet above the ground.
.
"That is because you are lifting with the part of you that would normally use your hands. Release that part of your thoughts, as if you've never picked up a stone before, or anything at all. Do not think of it as lifting the stone, think of it as the stone sprouting wings, and moving itself, because it wants to."

"This is ridiculous," Tharon said, and the rock fell four feet from the air. He had gotten it to rise, but it would not move where he wanted it to go. It was rather frustrating, because every part of him was trying to push it, somehow, or imagine a hand coming along and moving it for him, but the stone stood there, like an eyeball, staring Tharon tauntingly in the face.

"It most certainly is not ridiculous," Rufus' voice was sharp, like a dog's bark, but Tharon was so frustrated now that he did not care.

"It is." He insisted, his blue eyes looked rather pitiful when he got fussy. "And besides, what is the point, if I can't use it to toss my enemies aside."

"Just because you cannot use the spell on living beings, does not take the life from the spell, my boy." Rufus scolded. "And what is to say you could not move the rock your enemies stand beneath, or toss a rock towards them? But, very well, if you will let your frustration get the better of you, I shall not force it - Tally, why don't you come and give it another shot?"

Tharon had not looked at it that way, he admitted. Rufus seemed to always have another way of seeing things. Tharon gave a fussy look and mussed his hair, stepping aside to let his cousin try.

"Picture it with wings, Thalia." Tharon added mockingly.

Tally stepped into Tharon's spot in front of the stones. They were not big stones at all, just shy the size of a clenched fist, and Tally wondered why it had been so hard to do compared to the rest of the magick they had learnt.

"You need not try so hard to concentrate, let only the spell and the stone do the work." Rufus said, and stepped beside her. "Watch, I'll show you once more."

Rufus held out his hand in the same fashion Tharon had been, his fingers straight out, so straight that they arced back slightly and tight together at the end up his outstretched arm, which was hairy, and seemed to get harrier every time he turned back from Rex. He looked at the rock, and without so much as a movement of his still hand, the rock floated up, gracefully, and danced in the air, instead of trembling as Tharon's had. It glided over to feet to the left, and then ever so softly, as if it had an invisible parachute, touched itself to the ground and rested in place as if it had always been there.