by Jim Proctor
“Good night, Angus.”
The little man walked along the hallway to his bedroom, and Jazeen went into her room and closed the door. She had a hot shower and brushed her teeth. After slipping into a fresh nightshirt, she hand-washed her underwear in the sink and hung them on the towel rack to dry. Opening the bathroom door, she found Fluffy lying in the middle of her bed. The cat half-opened one eye to look at her and then closed it again.
“You can’t have the whole bed, girl. Move over,” she said as she opened the door to the hallway and extinguished the lamp. Sliding under the covers, she snuggled against Fluffy and made herself comfortable.
* * * *
Once again, Jazeen awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. As she climbed out of bed, Fluffy raised her head and looked at her. The cat jumped to the floor and padded out of the room, turning right to go down the stairs.
“Oh, so that’s how it is,” she said. “As soon as food is involved, I’m second best.”
To her shock, Fluffy returned and began rubbing against her legs, purring loudly.
“I was only kidding,” she said with a laugh. At this, Fluffy reared up, resting her front paws on Jazeen’s shoulders, and rubbed her face against Jazeen’s cheek. Then, dropping down, she trotted out of the room and down the steps. “I’ll swear that cat understands every word I say.”
When Jazeen entered the kitchen, Angus put something into a drawer and slammed it shut. Breakfast was set on the table, and she saw that he had once again prepared many of her favorites.
“Still not going to tell me how you know what I like to eat for breakfast?” she asked as she sat.
“You can learn a lot from someone’s nimbus,” he said as he sat across from her.
“You can see my favorite foods in my nimbus?” she asked, her tone and expression making it clear she didn’t believe him.
“Oh yes,” he said.
She stared at him.
“Well, I can’t exactly see your favorite foods. More like, I can see the kinds of…”
She raised her eyebrows.
“Okay, it was just a guess. Besides, once you put bacon on the menu, everything else is just filler.”
Jazeen smiled. “I thought so.”
After breakfast, Jazeen washed while Angus rinsed, dried, and put away the dishes. They soon had the kitchen spotless and moved to the living room. Angus added a few logs to the fire and sat in his chair. Jazeen walked around the room, eyeing things curiously. Stopping in front of a shelf, she looked at an empty pickle jar next to some candles and a box of matches.
Picking up the jar, she turned it slowly, examining it from every angle. “Why do you have an empty pickle jar on your candle shelf?”
Angus, apparently lost in thought, came back to himself and turned to see what she was talking about. He gasped.
“Please, carefully put that back on the shelf. Don’t break it,” he said. There was a note of urgency in his voice, so she gently put the jar back on the shelf. He visibly relaxed as her hands withdrew.
“Why the fuss over an empty pickle jar?” she asked.
“It’s not empty,” he said, and went back to looking into the fire.
“It looks empty to me.”
“It’s not,” he said.
“I could pick it up again.”
Angus spun in his seat to face her. The jar was sitting on the shelf, and she was grinning.
“If you must know, it contains my cumulus,” he said.
She groaned. “What is it with you and Latin?” Her brow wrinkled with thought. “Accumulation… pile… heap… it could mean a few different things depending on context.”
“I think accumulation would be the best translation in this case,” he said.
“Accumulation of what?” she asked.
“Come and sit. We can talk.”
Jazeen suspected he simply wanted her to move away from the pickle jar. Crossing the room, she sat in the chair by the fireplace.
“There’s something you need to know about me,” he began.
“Wait, don’t tell me,” she said. “Let me read your nimbus… you enjoy making up ridiculous stories.”
“No,” he said. “Well, yes, I do, but that’s beside the point.”
Jazeen giggled. “I’m sorry. Go ahead, I’m listening.”
Angus glared at her for a moment, but his features quickly softened. She could tell he was holding back a smile. “I’m a wizard.”
“You’re magic?” she asked.
“Oh, goodness no. Magic is magic. People aren’t magic,” he said.
“Okay, so you’re a wizard, but you’re not magic,” she said.
Angus’ smile broke through his defenses. “You’re not making this easy. It’s like this: magic is… it’s a… well, it’s… it’s like a force of nature,” he said. “People, certain people, can channel that force and make things happen.”
“And you’re one of those people…” Jazeen said as she now fought to keep a straight face.
“Yes. Now, the thing you need to know is, there is positive magical power and negative, or you might call it good magic and bad magic. Some people choose to channel the good power. Others choose the bad. You can’t choose both, and once your choice is made, it’s nearly impossible to undo that choice.”
“So, what’s in the pickle jar?” she asked.
Angus smiled, “Something amazing.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” she asked.
“I’m getting there. You see, pickle jars generate a stasis field. Anything put into that field remains unchanged until it’s removed from the field. Even time ceases to exist in the stasis field,” he said.
Jazeen laughed. “Pickle jars generate a stasis field?”
Angus looked at her and waggled his eyebrows. “Have you ever seen a pickle go bad?”
Jazeen smiled. “Okay, so there’s a stasis field inside the jar. What is in the field?”
“My cumulus,” he said.
Jazeen groaned. “Yes. I know. But what is it?”
“When a person channels positive magical energy, some of the energy builds up inside them. That can be good if you need to use magic to do something really big—bigger than you could do by just channeling the naturally occurring magical power. You can tap into that stored energy and use it. But it can also be bad. If it builds up too much, it forces itself out. The power will do things you never wanted nor expected to do. It’s extremely dangerous, even if it’s good magic.”
“I don’t understand. How can good magic cause bad things to happen?” she asked.
Angus thought for a moment, and then said, “Let’s say, out of pure kindness, you decide to paint your neighbors’ house while they’re out of town. Now, that might be a really nice thing to do. But suppose your neighbors don’t like neon green and electric pink? You’ve done something nice with the best of intentions, but the result is negative and your neighbors are furious. Do you see what I’m saying?”
“I think so,” she said. “So, the magic builds up until you can’t keep it in, and it does things through you without your control. Sometimes, even though the power is positive, the results can be negative.”
“Yes, exactly!” he exclaimed.
“Okay, but I still don’t understand what your cumulus is,” she said.
“A long time ago, I used to channel magic often. As a result, a tremendous magical force built up inside me. I could feel it trying to get out, and I knew something horrible could happen if I didn’t do something about it. I studied the oldest books I could find about channeling, and I found a way to release it and turn it into an infinitesimally small point of condensed magical energy,” he said. “Now, all that magical energy compressed into a tiny point is unstable. It could… well, blow up, so to speak. To keep that from happening, I put it into that pickle… that stasis jar.”
Jazeen smiled. “This is far better than the vegetable crate dais story.”
“They have a common element,” he sa
id.
“I’m sure they do,” she said with a laugh.
“They’re both true,” he insisted.
“You said some of the magical energy builds up inside you whenever you channel it. Doesn’t that mean the magic has built up inside you again?”
“The last time I channeled magic was when I created the nuclear thermopile generators for my airship and for this island. That was decades ago,” he said.
“I knew there had to be some steady source of power for the holographic generators. What I can’t understand is, why all the oil lamps and things? If you have that nuclear thingy for power, why not use electric lights?” she asked.
“I like oil lamps,” he said.
Jazeen looked at him expectantly.
“And… living on an island in the sea with obvious signs of electric power might draw unwanted attention,” he said.
She looked into the fire for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”
“Can I stop you?” he asked.
Turning to look at him, she saw he was smiling. “Probably not. But I won’t ask if you’re tired of answering my questions.”
“Go ahead. No secrets between friends,” he said.
“How old are you?” she asked.
Angus shrugged. “I don’t know. I stopped counting centuries ago.”
Jazeen smiled. “You’re centuries old?”
“Yes, but don’t ask how many. I really don’t know. After the first few centuries, I stopped counting the years. Later, I stopped counting the decades. Eventually, I just stopped counting altogether,” he said.
“So, you can channel magical energy, but you don’t do it because it would result in magical energy building up inside you?” she said.
“That sums it up fairly well,” he said.
“And you’re centuries old, but don’t know how many,” she added.
“Yes,” he said.
Jazeen smiled. “Which is a far-fetched story neatly wrapped up in an iron-clad excuse for why you can’t prove any of it.”
“You don’t believe me,” he said.
“Would you believe a story like that?” she asked.
“If I didn’t know how magic works, no, I probably wouldn’t,” he said.
“It’s another story like the nimbus thing,” she said.
“No, that’s true!” he said.
“But the magical energy thing isn’t,” she said.
“No! That’s true, too,” he said.
“What about Fluffy and Occisor? Did you create them with magic?” she asked.
“They are completely natural creatures. I picked them up as pets along the way because…” He turned and looked into the fire.
“Because what?” she asked.
“I was lonely,” he said finally.
“Is that why you brought me here, because you were lonely?”
Angus sighed. “Fluffy and Occisor are lovely pets, but they’re no substitute for interaction with people.”
“So you decided to take a chance and trust me?” she said.
“I could see by your nimbus that I could trust you,” he said.
“There’s something special about me, huh?”
Angus nodded. “You are a very special person; far more special than you realize. People like you are rare. That Terrin boy, he doesn’t know what a mistake he’s made.”
Jazeen laughed. “I’m nothing special.”
“If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here now,” he said.
Jazeen stared into the fire for a while. Finally, she asked, “Do pickle jars really have a stasis field inside?”
Angus grinned. “Amazing things, pickle jars.”
They sat in silence for a while, gazing into the fire, listening to the crackle of the logs. Occasionally, Fluffy would yawn and change position on the floor between them, exposing another side of herself to the fire’s radiant heat. Occisor slept soundly on the back of Angus’ chair.
Eventually, Angus said, “Jaz, I have to take a trip. I’ll be gone for a week, maybe a bit more. I don’t know what your plans are, but you’re welcome to go with me.”
“I wish I could, Angus, but I can’t.”
“Oh. Well… you could stay here with Fluffy and Occisor if you’d rather,” he said.
“It’s not that I don’t want to go with you. I’d love to, but I have a new job. I start early next week,” she said.
“I see. Well, then, I’ll take you home on my way out,” he said.
“Who’ll take care of Fluffy and Occisor?” she asked.
“I will, of course. Been doing it for years, you know. I’ll take them with me.”
“You’ll take these two on your airship?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said. “They love to travel.”
Looking into the fire again, she asked, “When will we leave?”
“Sunday morning, if that’s okay.”
Jazeen smiled, glad she would have a few more days here. “That’s fine, Angus. So, where are you going?”
“Fishing,” he said.
Jazeen chuckled. “Really?”
“Fluffy loves Ocean Bass. They’ll be migrating north around now, about a day’s flight off the eastern coast. I’m going to the Great Ocean where I’ll sit by the railing and fish.”
“That sounds like fun. I’m sorry I can’t go,” she said.
“You can go next time,” Angus said with a smile.
Jazeen smiled and nodded.
After a moment, she said, “So, let’s just say for the sake of argument, that your story about channeling magical energy is true. Why did you give it up?”
“I told you, the magic was building up in me, and I was afraid something bad might happen.”
“No, that’s just a convenient excuse. You drained off the energy and made that cumulus, which eliminated the possibility of anything bad happening,” Jazeen said. “Why did you really stop?”
Angus looked at her rather intently. Finally, he said, “When I was young, there were a lot of folks who could channel magic. When a non-magical person needed something special done, there were lots of channelers they could turn to for help. As time went on, fewer people learned the craft. Some as knew it came to a bad end. Our numbers dwindled. Those of us who remained were in ever-growing demand, and demands were all we got. It reached a point where I had to give it up for my own good.”
“That’s terrible!” she said. “To have such a gift and be forced to give it up out of self-preservation. What a waste.”
Angus shrugged. “It was only a gift before it became a burden. It’s never a bad thing to lay down a burden.”
“Is that why you hide here on this island, so people won’t find you and ask you to help them?” she asked.
He stared into the fire for a while, and she wondered if he had heard her. Finally, he said, “No, not really. Very few people know about us channelers these days. Who would come asking me for anything?”
“Then why hide like this?” she asked.
“Because there are still a few channelers out there who are active. Some of them channel the negative power. The negative power isn’t as powerful as the positive, and it doesn’t build up inside you, either. A channeler of the dark power only feels the power when he’s channeling it. That’s why it’s more… addictive. You want to feel the power, but you can only feel it when you are channeling it. Most channelers who choose the dark energy, do so very early in their training. They don’t study magic as carefully and extensively as positive channelers do. A lot of the dark ones have ideas about how to gain more power,” he said.
“They think they can take it from positive channelers,” Jazeen said.
Angus nodded.
“If one of them found you, could you protect yourself?” she asked. “I mean, hypothetically, of course.”
“I could, but I might need to use my cumulus to do it.”
“Is that what you’re saving it for?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I created it for the very rea
son I said, to prevent something bad from happening. The fact that it’s available if I need it is just a bonus.”
“So you could defeat a dark wizard if you had to?” she asked.
“Defeat? No, I couldn’t do that,” he said.
“But you said positive energy is more powerful than negative,” she said.
“I said I could protect myself. That’s not the same thing as defeating someone,” he said.
“I don’t understand,” Jazeen said.
“Remember, I told you that channelers have to make a choice between positive and negative energy. I chose the positive. I can’t do negative things to someone, even in self-defense. If I need to defend myself from a dark channeler, I can use my powers to evade and escape. I can’t turn them into a frog, as your fairy tales say.”
“So you have to spend your life running and hiding?” she asked.
“I suppose so,” he said. “It’s not like I’m constantly looking over my shoulder. It’s been more than a century since a dark channeler last found me.”
Jazeen nodded. “That’s good. I was afraid there were people out there hunting for you at this very moment.”
“There probably are,” he said.
Jazeen was taken aback by the casual way he said this. “How can you live like this, never knowing when a dark channeler might find you?” she asked.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were beginning to believe me,” he said with a smile.
She shrugged. “What girl wouldn’t want to believe that her new best friend could do magic?”
“So you do believe me?” he said.
She shook her head. “I don’t believe in magic anymore, Angus.”
She looked at him and saw the flickering fire light reflected in his eyes.
“I’m tired of sitting here. Would you like to take a walk around the island?”
“I’d love to,” she said. Holding out a hand, she said, “Let me have your bottle.”
Angus’ head spun toward her. “What bottle?”
She chuckled. “Your beer bottle. I’ll take them to the kitchen.”
“Oh, yes… thank you,” he said as he handed it to her.
Jazeen rinsed out the empty bottles and set them on the counter next to the sink. Glancing briefly toward the door, she slowly opened the drawer Angus had slammed shut earlier. The drawer contained small kitchen gadgets and one small, brown bottle. Through the dark glass, she could see the pills. Closing the drawer quietly, she turned and went back into the living room.