by Kayla Bashe
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Nearby, a child with mousy brown hair and large round glasses begins to wail loudly.
“Shut up, you moronic child! Can’t you see you’re ruining everyone’s morning?” the mother whispers angrily, gripping the kid’s arm very hard. It only makes the young girl cry harder, big tears rolling down her cheeks.
Chewing on the inside of your lip, you start thinking that you should intervene. But…maybe they’re only shooting a scene in a movie? Surely no parent would wish to treat their child with such cruelty…
“If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about. Clearly, you’re just crying to get attention, you baby—well, it’s not going to work. Stop crying right now!” With that, the top of her head bursts open, revealing wriggling purple-and-red tentacles, each topped with eyes and a mouth. The child topples to the floor, too frightened to cry, the look in her eyes one of absolute terror.
A monster? On the bus?
Yeah, that’s more of a disruption to the morning commute than a crying child.
You stand up on your seat—“V for Verdie, V for Victory!”—and twirl through a quick transformation sequence.
Instantly, the monster draws in a great deep breath—and then puffs out a purple gas from the top of its tentacles.
“I’m falling asleep…” a woman in a nearby seat chokes out.
A man tries to get to his feet, but slumps back down. “Can’t…move…”
Up front, the driver slumps over his controls. Quickly, you dash to the front of the bus and hit the emergency button. The autopilot kicks in, and the hoverbus slows down, but continues to move. There’s no danger of crashing, but you’ve got to stop this creature before the hoverbus reaches its destination. Who knows how much more havoc it could cause if allowed to roam free? The attack you’ll use to stop it is…
* * *
Aileron
* * *
Aerial Correction
* * *
Direct flight!
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Nearby, a child with mousy brown hair and large round glasses begins to wail loudly.
“Shut up, you moronic child! Can’t you see you’re ruining everyone’s morning?” the mother whispers angrily, gripping the kid’s arm very hard. It only makes the young girl cry harder, big tears rolling down her cheeks.
Chewing on the inside of your lip, you start thinking that you should intervene. But…maybe they’re only shooting a scene in a movie? Surely no parent would wish to treat their child with such cruelty…
“If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about. Clearly, you’re just crying to get attention, you baby—well, it’s not going to work. Stop crying right now!” With that, the top of her head bursts open, revealing wriggling purple-and-red tentacles, each topped with eyes and a mouth. The child topples to the floor, too frightened to cry, the look in her eyes one of absolute terror.
A monster? On the bus?
Yeah, that’s more of a disruption to the morning commute than a crying child.
You stand up on your seat—“V for Verdie, V for Victory!”—and twirl through a quick transformation sequence.
Instantly, the monster draws in a great deep breath—and then puffs out a purple gas from the top of its tentacles.
“I’m falling asleep…” a woman in a nearby seat chokes out.
A man tries to get to his feet, but slumps back down. “Can’t…move…”
Up front, the driver slumps over his controls. Quickly, you dash to the front of the bus and hit the emergency button. The autopilot kicks in, and the hoverbus slows down, but continues to move. There’s no danger of crashing, but you’ve got to stop this creature before the hoverbus reaches its destination. Who knows how much more havoc it could cause if allowed to roam free? The attack you’ll use to stop it is…
* * *
Aileron
* * *
Aerial Correction
* * *
Direct flight!
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
The attack damages it, but not enough to fully expel it from the poor woman’s body. Instead, it’s just made it angrier! Before you can plan your next attack, tendrils of purple and red flesh lash towards you, binding you and knocking you down. What does it plan on doing to you? You struggle as much as you can, hoping you don’t have to find out.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
What this attack lacks in terms of subtlety or gracefulness, it more than makes up in sheer power. “Direct flight!” you call out. The space inside the bus expands, allowing you to swoop upwards. You set your sights on your target and dive-bomb. As you pick up speed, the wind surrounds you.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
What this attack lacks in terms of subtlety or gracefulness, it more than makes up in sheer power. “Direct flight!” you call out. The space inside the bus expands, allowing you to swoop upwards. You set your sights on your target and dive-bomb. As you pick up speed, the wind surrounds you.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
“Majestic Inferno!” Magical fire shoots over your head, so close that you duck reflexively—and suddenly the tentacles around your ankles are shriveling and weakening so that you can kick them away, no problem. You take a deep breath. It’s all right, you tell yourself.
“You all right?”
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Aileron, from the old earth French, refers to the flight control surfaces of an aircraft. The attack itself, which you’ve invented, focuses on confusing and deceiving one’s enemy. Repeating the word as a whispered chant, you conjure up twin whirlwinds. They swirl around and through each other, confusing the monster, then swoop against it with a powerful smack.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Aerial Correction, one of the first attacks you ever developed
It’s a simple yet effective magical windblast.
The hi
gh-speed, magic-charged air shoots from your hands and towards the monster, ripping a hole in its side. It roars in pain and lashes out ineffectively—
-okay, not so ineffectively.
Because two of its mouth-tentacles are wrapped around your ankles, and it’s dragging you toward its main mouth, a gaping maw like that of a toothy red-and-purple venus flytrap. You claw at the floor, at the seats, trying to get some purchase, something to hold onto, but to no avail.
Your first battle, and you’re already going to be injured, or even—
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Are all your attacks named after old-timey British air force jargon? Yes, because you do what you want. Calling upon the wind, you switch gravity about, barrel downwards and deliver a powerful kick to the monster’s head.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Aileron, from the old earth French, refers to the flight control surfaces of an aircraft. The attack itself, which you’ve invented, focuses on confusing and deceiving one’s enemy. Repeating the word as a whispered chant, you conjure up twin whirlwinds. They swirl around and through each other, confusing the monster, then swoop against it with a powerful smack.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Aerial Correction, one of the first attacks you ever developed
It’s a simple yet effective magical windblast.
The high-speed, magic-charged air shoots from your hands and towards the monster, ripping a hole in its side. It roars in pain and lashes out ineffectively—
-okay, not so ineffectively.
Because two of its mouth-tentacles are wrapped around your ankles, and it’s dragging you toward its main mouth, a gaping maw like that of a toothy red-and-purple venus flytrap. You claw at the floor, at the seats, trying to get some purchase, something to hold onto, but to no avail.
Your first battle, and you’re already going to be injured, or even—
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Are all your attacks named after old-timey British air force jargon? Yes, because you do what you want. Calling upon the wind, you switch gravity about, barrel downwards and deliver a powerful kick to the monster’s head.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
“I think so.”
It’s the girl from earlier, and she’s gorgeous.
“Good—wait, stay down a second. Majestic Blaze!”
A burst of fire erupts from her hands. Peeking upwards, you see the tentacles dissolve into ashes, the woman’s body reassemble itself. Instantly, the poisonous gas dissipates, and people start waking up.
The girl goes over to the woman and makes sure that she and her child are okay. When she comes back to you, she seems a little puzzled. “Why are you still lying on the floor?”
“Because I wanted to watch you do things” seems like it might not be the most suave answer, so you just shrug.
“Well, here, let me help you up.” As she kneels to catch your hand, a book slips out of her bag.
“Your book?”
She nods. “I’m always reading.”
“What is it?”
“Not much. Just a bit of light reading…okay, it’s a political history of the last colonists from Old Earth who arrived at the Southern Isles on Castrolavia, and how careful managing of media trends and societo-cultural infrastructure helped keep their misogynistic ideals, or internalized misogyny in some cases, from, you know, destablilizing the society and screwing everything up.”
I could listen to big words falling out of your mouth all day, you think. Especially if it means getting to watch your face while you talk, that little smile at the end of a sentence…
“What did you say your name was?”
“Charmaine Flare. Char to my friends. For you, Char. I presume you’re heading to the Academy?”
“Yeah, I just got my letter this week.”
Her eyes widen when she smiles. “Me too! I was in the middle of a photo shoot when my letter just…fell from the ceiling. The look on my face when I opened it—that’s the photo they ended up using.”
“You, um, model?”
“For years! I was always so tall that I could never wear hand-me-downs. My parents made jokes about putting me to work so I could earn my keep, and one day, I took them seriously. I signed up for an open casting call to model kids’ play clothes. The rest is history.”
And then you realize where you recognized her. The latest issue of Girls Fighting Evil magazine used a model credited as Charmaine in not one, but two spreads: “best handmade accessories in your planetary sector” and “looks inspired by fairytale villians.” Even in a still image, she seemed so regal; up close, in real life, she’s breathtaking.
After finding your seats again, you talk about books and history—she’s wonderfully clever—and nailpolish and clothes. Charmaine is brisk and brilliant, with an unexpectedly fun twist of frivolity. It’s a bit of a relief letting her keep up most of the conversation while you listen, enraptured—a lot of the playfulness of childhood left your life with the Siege of Vestri, and it’s still slowly returning. By the time the hoverbus reaches the Academy gates, you two are fast friends.
* * *
>>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magic Resilient, by Kayla Bashe
* * *