Misfit Mage

by Michael Taggart

  John looked calm as a mountain but Annabeth and I were shaking, causing some of the magic to splash into the room. It wasn’t anything I could control, though. I was a first level magic user and this way above my pay grade. I was lucky to just hang in there.

  Sandy started chanting and the column of light dipped toward the floor. I hadn’t noticed this before but there were a few charms already in the center of the circle. The light touched down on the charms and they began to glow.

  All of the power wasn’t going into the charms, though. The motes of light were bouncing off the floor as well as the charms and shooting off into the room again. It was like a welder, with a hot flame in the middle and lots of sparks coming off. It was pretty, but the analytical part of me wondered how efficient it was.

  The charms were glowing yellow and gradually switched to orange. I hoped this meant they were charged up as I couldn’t hold on much longer. I had just about hit my limit when Sandy ran out of juice.

  I think she meant to let the power down gradually, but Annabeth collapsed, breaking the circle. The power hit me and didn’t have anywhere to go, so it flung me across the room. As I bounced off the wall, I noticed it was padded. That was nice.

  Sandy sank to the floor, exhausted. Leaving John as the only one standing. I tried to stand up, but my head was buzzing and I was so dizzy. It felt like the floor was tilting. The floor felt nice so I decided to just lay there for a while.

  “John, take everyone back to their home and make sure they are ok,” Sandy said. “Annabeth, Jason, dinner at my place tomorrow night. We can discuss results and see about doing this again.” She sounded hoarse and tired.

  Annabeth looked the worst so John picked her up first. He left both Sandy and I resting on the floor. The room had stopped spinning as long as I didn’t raise my head up. My whole body tingled and occasionally I felt a muscle twitch. I wondered if this is what it is like being electrocuted? Hopefully I will never find out.

  John came back after a while, scooped me up off the floor, and carried me back to my room. I don’t know if it was the magic talking or the lager, but it sure was nice to be carried by a strong handsome man. I told him that and he just laughed in his booming voice.

  Then I asked if we were still brothers. He said of course, as long as I didn’t mind getting painted up every now and then. I said I was fine with that as long as it came with some lager and a nice rug to pass out on.

  We got to my room and John took me straight to bed. That was probably a good thing as I was still feeling woozy. A few minutes later he came back with the litter box he’d made as well as my clothes and my kitten. He filled up the box with the litter Sandy had given me and plopped the kitten in it. After a promise to see me tomorrow night he left to get Sandy.

  I laid in bed staring at the ceiling, still wearing John’s shirt and covered in paint. What a strange day this had been. I probably should have been angrier at John, but I liked the guy and it was hard to stay mad at him. Now that I knew what a circle was like, it probably was a good idea that I hadn’t been completely sober.

  I heard a little meow, and soon a kitten hopped up onto my pillow. He snuggled up to my face and started purring. I was nose to nose with him and his beautiful green eyes were half closed in happiness. He was the perfect picture of peace and bliss.

  “What am I going to call you? I can’t call you Kitten forever,” I whispered. I scratched him behind the ears with one finger. I closed my eyes as I started to drift away.

  I felt a paw on my cheek. “Bermuda Moses.”

  I opened my eyes. Had my cat just talked to me? He was still there, purring away.

  “Bermuda Moses.” I tried it out. It wasn’t a bad name. Kinda had a ring to it. It reminded me of the names of the cats in the play on Broadway. One of the guys I’d stayed with for a few weeks had loved that music and played it all the time. I’d always liked Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella sings the famous song “Memories.” Bermuda Moses seemed to fit in with that.

  With that last thought I fell asleep.

  14 Annabeth’s Apartment

  I woke up to another perfect morning. The sunlight in the room gently brought me to wakefulness. Tyler was curled up with me, strong arm around me. I opened my eyes and my kitten was on his back, all four legs thrown wide, belly to the sky. It seemed so peaceful. Had yesterday really happened? I ran a finger down his furry belly and caught sight of my hand. It still had paint on it. Yep, last night happened.

  I caught Tyler up on what had happened. He had a good laugh when I talked about John’s prank. He had been wondering why I was painted up and wearing an oversized t-shirt.

  Tyler said he had never been part of a magic circle and had no desire to be part of one. He wasn’t sure how his magic would react to the flow. It might be that instead of having a magic circle and charging charms we could instead end in a big orgy. I’m sure Sandy wouldn’t be happy about that at all so I stopped any efforts to recruit him.

  He did say we had good news. The second remnant was now gone. Two down. Two to go, although the hardest one still remained. I’d have to bring that up with Sandy tonight at dinner.

  Tyler left soon after and I played with my kitten a little more. I guess I should call him Bermuda Moses now. Had that really happened? It seemed like a dream. It was a neat name though and the little fella seemed to like it.

  Showering felt so good. I got all the paint and beer sweat off me. Bermuda supervised the whole proceedings from the top of the commode after knocking off the toilet paper again. I guess that was his spot now.

  After a breakfast of raisin bran and a Netflix show, I felt ready to start working on my magic. I was apprehensive about how I would feel after last night. I wasn’t tingling or anything and my muscles seemed fine. Hopefully everything was ok now.

  I touched my magic, and if anything, it seemed more responsive than before. I swirled it around my body and checked it out with my sight. It was a beautiful emerald green with touches of sapphire blue, just like it was supposed to be. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was afraid the circle last night had messed with my balance.

  I was going to be working with Penny and I didn’t want to mess her up more than she already was. I got comfortable on my old couch and started pulling magic from Penny. The core in my left hand was completely gone, so I spun up a new one and added the pure energy from my charm. Then I pushed my emerald and sapphire energy back into her. I used my breathing to keep track of my pushing and pulling, and I soon got into a nice flow. The breathing really helped and with all the concentration I soon entered a light trance. Bermuda crawled onto my lap and thought this would be a good time for a nap.

  I’m not sure how long I did this, at least a few hours, but at the end of the time I felt like I had a better connection with Penny. She wasn’t talking to me yet, but I had just gotten started on her recovery.

  One thing I really wanted to do today is talk to Annabeth. The last time we had talked was in the park before the golem attacked. I gave her a call and she said to come on up.

  I knocked on her door, which looked normal, unlike John’s, and she quickly answered.

  “What? No paint?” She said indicating my clothes.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?” I replied.

  “Well, it’s not every day that a magic circle is graced by a powerful shaman.” She laughed and let me inside.

  I immediately got why she had been so shocked by my apartment. Her apartment was beautiful. If my apartment was the ‘simple generic one-bedroom white-walled apartment,’ hers was like the penthouse. The whole place had a Tuscan theme, with textured walls, tall ceilings, broad wooden beams, and large tiles on the floor. The openings into other rooms were these big arches with some sort of stone all around it. There were little murals everywhere and somehow sunlight was coming in from the ceiling, giving the center of the apartment an open courtyard feeling.

  It was like something out of Architectural Digest and there was
no way this should have been possible in an apartment in Old Louisville. It left me speechless.

  Annabeth just grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen. She had a freakin wrought iron chandelier! The countertops were some sort of stone and she had one of those fancy kitchen islands with a sink and seating and all that. I didn’t even know what half of this was that I was looking at, but the effect was rustic, casual, elegant, beautiful.

  She poured us a glass of blood orange flavored lemonade and I finally found the words to rave about her place. We settled onto a comfortable bench loaded with pillows in the ‘courtyard’ part of the apartment.

  “How on earth did you do all this?” I asked. I really wanted to know. I realized my living space needed an upgrade.

  “I’ve always wanted to visit Italy and tour the countryside,” Annabeth explained. “That’s something I thought I would do when I retired but it just never happened. When I moved in here, I was still very sad about leaving my former house. It had so many memories and so much character. This place was a simple white apartment like you have now.”

  “You turned something like my place into this?” I breathed. “Wow. You really are magical.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t me. It was the House,” she said. “I discovered I could make changes quiet by accident. I’d be talking out loud to myself and I’d say some of the things I wanted to do to the place, to spruce it up a bit. When I came back later, it was done.

  “I found the House likes it when I hum and I hum when I’m happy. So the House gradually turned my little white apartment into this place.” She gestured around at all the beautiful architecture.

  “Of course, it didn’t all happen at once. Once I found out I could make changes, I created a folder with lots of pictures of places I liked. I’d point out something in the picture I’d like and a place to put it. The House did the rest.”

  She went on for a while more about her apartment. She showed me around and pointed out things the House had added and the original picture it had come from. She had a great sense of color and how things went together to create a pleasing space. Certainly much more than I did.

  I begged her to help me and she said it would be a lot of fun to help me find my style. We agreed to work on it later when we had more time. In the meantime, I wanted to know how she was doing. The last couple times I’d seen her she was either being kicked by a golem or getting overloaded by a magic circle.

  “That golem really did a number on me. That kick hurt!” She pulled up her shirt and showed me her middle. It was still a mass of bruises. They were turning the strange green and purple colors which meant they would be going away soon. Still, this was no joke.

  “Did it crack any ribs?” I asked. “I saw it hit you. You flew through the air and I thought for sure some major damage had happened.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, everything hurt a lot, but it doesn’t feel like a broken bone.”

  “Didn’t you go to the hospital? Get some x-rays?” I asked. That would have been one of the first thing I did after I woke up. That and get some extra strength pain killers.

  She just shook her head. “I would have, but apparently x-rays don’t work for us anymore. I guess the magic interferes with it or something.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “It’s not just x-rays. Regular medicine doesn’t work for us anymore either.” She grimaced. “Sandy told me but I had to try it for myself. I took three Tylenol, but it only helped me for about fifteen minutes. Then my system got rid of it. I took three more and they did nothing for me.”

  “That’s crazy!” I said.

  “I tried everything. Aspirin, naproxen, ibuprofen—nothing really worked. I even downed a whole bottle of cold medicine to see if that would help me sleep. It tasted nice but that was it.”

  “I guess it’s a good news–bad news sort of thing. We don’t get sick so we don’t need medicine, but if we get hurt then medicine doesn’t work for us.”

  “It is nice we don’t get sick,” I said. “Or get a headache or anything like that, but not having a pain reliever, that sounds kind of harsh. So, is there a magical something that helps?”

  “I do have this now.” She showed me a tiny four-leaf clover charm on a chain around her neck. “This is one of the charms Sandy had in our circle. She brought it up to me this morning. She said it’s only about a quarter full, but it should speed up the healing and help with the pain.”

  “So, is it working?” I asked.

  “Oh yes,” she said emphatically. “I sure feel a lot better. That magic circle is rough, but having this makes it worth it.”

  We talked about the magic circle for a bit. She had the same experience I did, that it was like holding onto an electric wire. I hadn’t felt any ill effects from it though, and she said she was doing fine too. We both didn’t like the experience and we weren’t looking forward to the next time, but it was necessary to get magic into the charms.

  We were winding down that conversation when Bermuda the kitten showed up. I had no idea how he got in here but him and little miss sunshine hit it off right away. She cooed all over him and soon he was in her lap, on his back, letting her rub his belly. His eyes were closed and his little paws were making squishing motions in the air. He is so freaking cute!

  I still wanted to work on transferring magic with Penny some more and see if I could wake her up. I felt guilty that I’d gotten drunk off my bum yesterday and I was determined to make up for it today.

  Annabeth said I could work on it in right there in her courtyard. At first I said no. This was all so new I wanted to work on it on my own. That way if I completely messed up nobody could see me. Then Annabeth confessed it all still felt new to her as well and she’d love to have some company working on it.

  I decided to stay, and we ended up on a bunch of cushions and pillows on the ground. Somehow, even though we were indoors, the sun was shining into the courtyard and our impromptu magic session. We both got in touch with our magic and just moving it around. She didn’t have Penny to work with, but she was still working on a core.

  I told her about the green water in the vase and the shot glass and what Sandy had suggested for Penny. We also talked about how it felt to move magic around. It was different for Sandy. She didn’t have pure white magic to work with. It was all her magic that she was trying to feel and move. Because it all felt like her magic it was difficult for her to distinguish it and do something with it.

  I had thought of the extra magic in Penny as a problem, and it was to Penny, but it was a bonus to me. Because it had a different look and feel, it was much easier for me to work with. I guess every dark cloud does have a silver lining. Annabeth’s optimism was infectious.

  In the process of talking about Annabeth’s experience I suggested that a lot of the words and even the goal we were shooting for was all visual. We talked about colors and magic swirling, but Annabeth’s magic was audio. Maybe she just needed to create a strong pure sound as her core. Maybe her magic would respond better to that.

  The response was immediate. Annabeth’s eyes flew open and she was so excited.

  “I can hear it!” She held out her left hand. “I thought of a tone, like a bell, and thought of my magic condensing around it. It made the sound! Then I poured magic into it and made it stronger and richer. It’s incredible. I can feel my hand vibrating!”

  I looked at her hand, and sure enough, her left hand was much brighter than her right hand.

  We pushed the idea even more and she tried different tones to see if that made a difference. It didn’t. It was the richness, clarity, and volume of the tone that seemed to matter.

  She tried two tones but that didn’t work at all. Still, one tone was a breakthrough.

  I also found out that she was left handed. Sandy had her working on her first core in her dominant hand. That made sense as she wasn’t trying to move magic from a charm through her body like I was.

  After all the di
scovery and camaraderie, we got into a grove and just worked on our magic for hours. Annabeth’s courtyard was beautiful and it just felt natural to work on magic in such a graceful space.

  Bermuda napped on the pillows, explored for a while, then napped again. From his perspective we were not very exciting.

  The sun was starting to set when he wandered off again and this time, we heard a crash. He ran into the courtyard all fuzzed up. It was time to have supper at Sandy’s anyway, so we decided to stop for now. I hoped he hadn’t knocked over anything important but Annabeth didn’t seem concerned. I picked up my little wild child, took him back to my place, and did a little freshening up.

  Supper at Sandy’s was awesome as always. We had chicken pot pie, cornbread, and a side salad with homemade honey mustard dressing. I filled up my plate and discovered just how hungry I was. I ate everything on it, filled it up again and ate all that too. I finished it off with some cornbread and strawberry jam. I was so full but so happy.

  Sandy slyly suggested that being a shaman must really be hungry business. John laughed and said it was certainly a thirsty one! Then John went over the story again in great detail about how I’d gotten all painted up and the look on Sandy’s face when I’d walked in the room.

  We were all snorting with laughter like it had happened all over again. John was a good story teller and he didn’t make me sound too much like a buffoon and Sandy didn’t sound too mad in the retelling. John started calling me The Shaman and by the end of the evening the nickname had stuck.

  We did cover some business. Sandy had me talk about my experience in the magic circle. I’d told her what I’d seen and felt, how it had been part rollercoaster and part electrocution. Sandy’s magic was powering the circle and we were just along for the ride. Sandy said again that a circle is normally at least seven experienced and powerful mages. She didn’t know any other way of making our four-person circle work other than pure power and will. Sandy was a prodigy in the power department, she was able to make up for the missing sups on her own.