by E A Foley
Would you rather find out that you have magical abilities or that you truly are crazy? The voice countered.
“You have a point there,” Iris acquiesced. “What do I need to do?”
Let’s see here . . . something easy . . . something you’ll be able to do with little effort . . . hmmm . . . The voice sounded as though she were thinking out loud, much as Iris did. Ah! I’ve got it. Think about your math homework.
Iris thought about the assigned problems and how she still had to do all of them when the voice cut in on her thoughts.
No, not the problems, the voice scolded. The page you’ve written the problems on. Think about the piece of paper itself. Good. Now, think about the physical page. How it’s as light as air.
“Of course it’s light as air. It’s a piece of paper.”
You are not trying! You promised you would at least give this a shot, remember? Now try! Let’s start over, shall we? The paper. Think about the piece of paper. Think that it has no weight—it’s just molecules and nothing more. It’s made of the same stuff you’re made of, that the air is made of, that the Earth is made of . . .
Iris closed her eyes and concentrated on the piece of paper. She’d taken chemistry, so she knew all things on Earth were, at their base, the same, and that it was how their atoms came together that allowed them to form into actual things like animals or trees or rocks. She knew this, but it didn’t make it any easier to think of the piece of paper as anything but a piece of paper.
“Okay, protons, neutrons, electrons . . . atoms. The paper is made up of tiny specks that are all close together and create an illusion that my eyes see as paper.” Iris tried to talk her brain into seeing something that her eyes couldn’t see. Somehow, it began to work.
Good, good, the voice said with quiet encouragement. Now, ask those building blocks to be lighter than the surrounding atoms around them.
“How?”
That’s something you’ll need to figure out. It’s a system that must work for you always, so it must be something you come up with. I can tell you that you must ask the item to complete the task you wish it to do. It cannot be a demand or a suggestion, as neither of those will give you the results you seek.
“Alrighty then. I’m about to ask a piece of paper to be lighter than air. Right.” Iris kept her eyes closed and concentrated on the piece of paper and all the atoms that gave it its form. She thought about the air around her body—how it was formed by oxygen, nitrogen, and other trace elements that were different compositions of atoms. She concentrated on seeing those pieces in her mind’s eye as well.
Iris cocked her head to the left and opened her eyes to look at the piece of paper laying on her bed. She kept all her thoughts on atoms at the forefront of her mind and contemplated her request. Once it was formed, she willed it toward the piece of paper. Asked that it be lighter than the surrounding air.
Keeping thoughts like “this is crazy” out of her mind was difficult, but Iris managed to squash them under her concentration. As she sat there staring at the still piece of paper, the same tickling sensation she’d been experiencing bloomed in the back of her neck. This time it continued down her spine and shoulders. Drifted outward until it covered every inch of her body. It hit her toes and rebounded to creep back up her spine and neck to her head. It was as though a door opened in her mind.
Iris asked the piece of paper to be lighter than air. It complied. She watched in stunned silence as her math homework lifted up until it floated level with her eyes.
Chapter 6
“Bloody hell!” Iris yelled. The paper sank back to her bed. “I’m asleep, right? So if I pinch myself, I’ll wake up.” Iris put her words into action and pinched her left forearm. “Ow! That hurt!”
You know, you are really lucky you’re home alone right now. And stop it with the I-must-be-sleeping bit. It’s gotten rather old.
“Seriously! Seriously? That’s what you have to say?”
The voice remained silent.
“So I did that? I made that piece of paper fly?”
No. You asked it to be lighter than air and it decided to comply. You can never demand something bend to your will. You must always make requests. Remember this. It’s very important.
“What’s the freakin’ difference? And what does a piece of paper care? It’s an inanimate object.”
There’s a huge difference. If you demand an action of something, you may find that it resists and attempts to refuse your demand. This can cause a great number of disasters.
For example, the item may resist so much you’re forced to pour more and more power into it until it must bend to your will. There is a chance you’ll succeed and the object will do as you tell it. More likely, the object will resist and thus lead to a failure of epic proportions. Say you were demanding something to catch fire. The molecules could suddenly burst into flame along with many others you were not focusing on. At a minimum, a larger fire than desired will break out. More likely, an explosion will be the result. Why risk it when a simple request is all you need?
“So this piece of paper . . . what could have happened if I’d demanded it fly and it resisted?”
It could have flown up rapidly—which may not have caused much damage—but it could have startled you. There’s also the possibility of it moving in an alternate direction to the one you desired. Had it been something other than a piece of paper, it could have caused serious harm to whatever it came in contact with. Especially if it had shot up and toward your face.
Iris took a few moments to contemplate what the voice said. It made sense. In a weird way. If you asked a person to do something, they were more likely to comply with the request rather than if you demanded they do something. As this logic started to take hold, Iris began to believe the voice and that she actually had powers.
“What am I then? Am I human or something else?”
You’re human. You simply have the ability to manipulate the very fabric that connects all things on Earth. You have a link to the world that is exceedingly rare. In time it will allow you to understand how everything is linked on the Earth. You may even be able to expand that understanding outward to encompass the entire universe. To discover how it was formed and how it works.
You’re unique. Your analytical mind and your creative spirit are the perfect combination for such a person. You’ll be able to imagine how to manipulate everything at its base levels while logically determining the rules and regulations of the very core of the universe. Iris Faye, you have awoken and can finally begin your ultimate purpose in life.
“My what?”
We’ll cover that one later. First you need to learn how to hone your newfound powers and capabilities. The voice responded a bit evasively.
Iris was eager to try more things, so she let the comment go for now. “Getting started with training sounds good to me. So, what do I call you?”
Nothing. I’m you.
“Yeah, well, I can’t keep referring to you as ‘me’ or ‘I.’ You may be me, but you are a mini version of me. A little piece of myself. That’s what I’ll call you, my Little Self. So, Little Self, what’s the first lesson?”
And just like that, Iris was a believer. She was itching to get started on her first lesson and said as much to her Little Self, but the only response she received was one about priorities followed by silence. Yelling into her own mind for a few minutes did nothing. Instead Iris sat down and muscled her brain into focusing on her homework before marching band practice started in less than two hours. Training would have to wait until after school the next day.
Iris was distracted all through marching practice that evening and throughout school the following day but in an overall good mood. Leg tapping and watch checking didn’t help the day move faster, nor did it lessen her anticipation of what she was going to learn when she got home Friday afternoon.
“Hey, Little Self, I’m ready to learn!” She said to her empty room once she’d double-checked the house was empty and
locked herself in. There was no response. “Hello? Little Self? I’m ready to start my lessons . . .” Silence filled her head. “Well, if you’re not going to help, I guess I’ll just have to try it for myself.”
Iris took a seat on her bed, pulled out a piece of paper and stared at it. She willed it to rise up as she had the day before. To be lighter than the air surrounding it. A minute passed. Two. Three turned into five, which extended to ten. She slumped in on herself. How could she have ever believed she was special enough to do something as extraordinary as magic? Dejected, Iris picked up the paper and crumbled it in her hand.
An exasperated sigh sounded within her mind.
“Nice of you to join me.”
You are so impatient.
“What was I supposed to do? Wait until you arrived?”
No. You were supposed to try. To believe. If you don’t believe in your powers—in what I’ve already told you—then we’re both wasting our time and I might as well disappear altogether.
Iris’s heart dropped. Yesterday was a fluke. She knew it had been. She’d gotten her hopes up for nothing. Her own desire to create a new reality for herself had gotten the better of her. “We probably are just wasting our time. I’m not special. I can’t do this. I’m just a nobody who has no chance of being anything but a nameless face in the crowd.”
I thought we’d gotten over this one yesterday. Fine. First things first; confidence. If you can’t believe in yourself and the abilities you possess, believe in me and the fact that I know you have the necessary connection to all things. And stop thinking you’re crazy. It’s really getting on my nerves.
“You can hear my thoughts?”
Of course I can. I’m a part of you. I’m in your mind for Christ’s sake! Let’s try something. Repeat after me: I am special.
“But I don’t think—"
Shut up and repeat!
Iris cut off her rebuttal and repeated “I am special,” in a monotonous voice that clearly showed she didn’t believe what she was saying.
Fine. Let’s try something else. How about a lesson? If you can’t believe it for yourself without proof, I’ll just have to give you proof. Lesson one; how to access the power flowing through the Earth and harness that power whenever you need it. In essence, the basics.
“So there’s a power flowing through the Earth?”
Yes. And all things on it. The universe, even. But you have to master the basics before you’re able to feel or tap into that power source.
Iris thought about this statement for a few moments. “That’s different from what I did yesterday. I didn’t tap into any power flowing through the Earth or anything like that.”
Actually, you did. Well, you tapped into the power flowing through one specific object. Think of yesterday as a necessary warm-up to convince you of what you were supposed to believe independently. Since you weren’t coming to the correct conclusions—and are still having issues—I needed to give you a taste of your abilities. I simply didn’t have the time to give you a proper lesson yesterday. So far, so good?
Iris nodded.
Good. Now as I was saying, if you can access the unifying power flowing through the Earth, you won’t need to tap into each individual object’s essence. You’ll instead be able to access everything at once and simply make a request to a specific object. This will allow you to perform tasks much faster and allow you to accomplish more.
Iris longed to ask Why me?, but her desire to learn outweighed the question. Instead, she kept quiet and waited for her Little Self to offer more instructions.
The first thing you need to learn is how to access the stores of power flowing throughout the Earth every time you want to. To be able to draw them into your body and expel them into what you call magic.
“So . . . how do I do that?” Iris asked her Little Self.
By learning how to search out the power that’s flowing around you. The easiest way is to focus on the Earth’s core so your mind and body can home in on the power source. Close your eyes and think about the Earth. Think about the outer layers. The grass, the dirt, the crust. And then think about the deeper levels . . .
Iris’s Little Self trailed off as Iris closed her eyes and began concentrating on the Earth. Iris tried to focus, but a brightly colored cross-section of the layers of the Earth kept popping into her mind. It reminded her of a jawbreaker, which in turn reminded her stomach that she needed a snack. Her concentration broke.
Iris’s Little Self sighed. This may work better outside, where you can sit on the ground and have a physical connection with the Earth. You seem to keep getting distracted. Maybe grab a snack as well.
“Sorry,” Iris said as she got up. She walked through the kitchen, where she paused long enough to grab an apple, then headed outside. She found a nice patch of recently mowed grass at the back of the yard to take a seat on, closed her eyes, and concentrated on the Earth below her. Iris thought about the grass. She ran her hands across the top of its blades and noticed how some blades tickled her legs. A deep breath revealed the sickly-sweet odor of still decaying clippings. It brought a smile to her face and reminded her of warm summer days and family gatherings in the backyard.
Chapter 7
Iris pushed the memories out of her mind. Once she had her focus back on the grass, she thought about the dirt in which it grew. How it supported so much life and was so different, depending on how it was formed. Now that she was outside, Iris found these things easy to think about. She could feel the grass, dig her fingers into the dirt, and imagine the shifting crust that produced the hundreds of earthquakes, large and small, she’d experienced in her short life; it was a part of being a Californian.
When she tried to focus on the layers below the crust, Iris found she was unable to delve deeper into the Earth’s center. She pulled the image of the Earth’s interior layers to the forefront of her mind, where she used it to create her own image. Trees and grass dug into dirt. The largest plants had the deepest roots, but they all stopped well short of the upper mantle or either section of the core.
Iris let the image fade and went back to concentrating on the grass she sat upon. It tickled her legs. Beneath it was the dirt, which deepened into the moving layers of the crust, which in turn augmented the interior layers of mantle and core.
It was the core that she homed in on. A small pulsating expanded outward from it. Like a heart at the Earth’s center. The more she concentrated on it, the more pronounced it became. She could feel it rise upward through each layer of the Earth’s interior. Felt it in the ground she sat on before it rose up through each blade of grass she was connected to.
Glorious was the only way Iris could describe it. Her eyes sparkled in a way that could only mean they were bright blue. She felt complete. Like she’d discovered a part of herself that had been missing. Iris drank it in. Drew the pulsating into her being. Reveled in its perfection. She couldn’t explain why, but all she wanted to do was pull in as much of the pulsating power as possible. Something tried to break her concentration. Iris ignored it.
Stop! Her Little Self commanded so loud Iris’s head ached. Your body isn’t used to even the smallest trickle of power and you’re drawing in floods. Stop pulling it in and take a second to focus on your body. Your own link to the Earth. Use the power to flood your veins and discover your own ability within.
Iris did as she was told. She focused on the power already within her body. On the blood coursing through her veins and bringing her life. The breath she drew in and the smells that surrounded her. Focused on each blade of grass that caressed her skin and the timid warmth emanating from the ground she sat on. She kept her eyes closed and allowed the sun’s rays to kiss her cheeks and the wind to dance about her in circles.
As Iris focused on her own body, she became more aware of herself. She could feel her bruised tailbone. The hangnail on her left pinky and the scratch her pencil had given her the previous day. She homed in on her heart and her breathing became shallow as she liste
ned to its steady beat align with that of the Earth’s.
That’s it! Wonderful progress. Now then, to work. You’ve drawn in a large stream of power. It’s time for your next lesson: how to turn it outward and use it to manipulate the matter of a designated object.
“Can we call it magic? It’s a lot easier that way.”
Fine. First, do you see the rose petals on the ground in front of you? Good. Focus on a single petal.
Iris followed the words of her Little Self with action and concentrated on the only white rose petal on the ground. Picking the one that was unique helped her distinguish it in her mind from all the other petals.
Focus your thoughts on the particles that make up the rose petal. Feel for the pulsating within it. The natural power of the Earth as it runs through the petal. Yes, that’s it. Now, imagine the petal standing on its end. Remember, you must request the atoms perform the task. You cannot demand it or force the petal to do as you bid.
Iris searched for and discovered the same pulsating within the small white petal. It was subtle and deep within the center of the petal. She thought about all the tiny particles that made up the petal and asked those particles to shift and move so that the petal stood vertically upon the grass. As Iris watched, the white petal slowly raised itself on end and balanced on the tip of a single blade of grass. Her breath caught as she watched the extraordinary sight unfold. She couldn’t believe it. She had actually performed magic.
Very good, her Little Self encouraged. Now, ask the petal to come closer to you so you can pick it up.
Iris kept her concentration focused on the petal. She altered her request and watched as the petal made its way to her hand. It hesitated, as though it wasn’t sure it wanted to comply with Iris’s request before it drifted toward her and landed in her outstretched hand. Iris smiled down at it. Thank you, she thought as she examined the rose petal. It was just like every other rose petal she had ever held, with one exception: she hadn’t needed to pick this one up. This petal had graciously come to her at her request.