The Dark Ice Chronicles - The Magi

Chapter 4 - We Fell In Love Alone On A Stage

The presence of that piece of ice is enough to scare me shitless.

It’s not supposed to exist. It was never real.

But it was there anyway.

What does that mean?

I hole up in my room for the rest of the day, doing a little research into warlock powers. There’s not a lot of info on the subject, mostly because...well, you know, science and magic, it’s like oil and water. Not much research has been done into our powers or where they come from, which really shocks me.

What I do find presents a lot of contradictions.

I find an article suggesting that, contrary to popular belief, it’s not impossible for warlocks to have two powers instead of just one - but no explanation for how it can happen, or how often. Then I find an article saying that while multi-powered warlocks exist, they tend to die off early because having two powers wears their bodies out that much faster. Or something. This one’s also very vague about its details.

The only source I find that I really come close to trusting goes into exhaustive detail about its results - which, once I look up a few of the more techno-babble-y words, indicates that yes, warlocks can have two powers - but only temporarily, and they’ll always revert to a single power eventually.

The article also says that it only happens when two conditions are met. One, the warlock has to have “latent alternative power” in his DNA - that is, he can’t be pure 100% Dark or Light or whatever. Two, the warlock’s latent power has to be activated by the presence of another warlock with the same power as the latent one.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I spent a good part of the day yesterday with Evan, and exhibited Ice power not long afterwards. And now, I can’t even replicate the other power I apparently had in my sleep.

And it sure beats the idea that having two powers could be lethal. I think I know which one I’m more willing to believe.

Of course, this raises a number of other questions as well.

For one thing, where did I get my “latent” power from? Mom? Or Dad? They’ve never said anything about any Ices on either side of the family.

And what about me and Evan? If I’m near her, I’m probably going to start showing Ice powers again. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I don’t think I’d want to give up my Dark power entirely. It’s all I’ve ever known.

Then again, who’s to say the results of that experiment were even reported accurately? For all I know, they could have just killed off their subjects and simply fudged their findings. Sounds paranoid, yes, not to mention oddly specific. But I wasn’t there to witness that study, so anything could have happened.

At this point, my real hope is that I can find myself to have a dual power, and not just for a short time either. I really want to get closer to Evan, and if it means I can learn a new ability I hadn’t even known I’d had - well, bonus. Hell, it might make up for it if I don’t succeed in my more romantic goal.

So my current plan is to see what Evan’s presence does to my power. The thing is, the study doesn’t clarify what they mean by “presence” - if simply being next to the other warlock is enough to activate the latent power, or if it has to be done by touch. I’m leaning towards the latter, based on the fact that last night, I only seemed to have Ice power in those two fingers Evan touched.

Speaking of which, I test it out again, to see if I can still make ice from those fingers. All that comes out, however, is two thin ribbons of Dark energy.

Okay, so maybe a little further experimentation is needed. Which, hopefully, I’ll be able to pull off soon enough. Until then, I decide to not tell my ‘rents anything about this. Not until I have something concrete to show them.